Beyond the Edge
by Dracis Tran
Summary: A universe is far too large for any organization of beings to be the be-all and end-all. The TSAB is about to find this out first hand.
1. On the Road Again

**Chapter 1: On the Road Again**

Empires built good roads. This was something known about all large Empires. Roads were extremely important; getting goods and people from one corner of the Empire to the other was extremely important. It's not something that can be overlooked. If the army is needed somewhere, they have to get there quickly. If a corner of the empire requires more food, then it is imperative that the abundant places in the Empire be able to send the required food quickly, lest the subjects starve. Transportation became only more and more important as the Empire grew.

An Empire that spanned dimensional space was no different.

The advent of the "jump" dimensional drive, increasing the cruising speed of space cruisers by up to six times, was an important invention in the history of the Malainian Empire. The ability to transport important goods and people had just gotten a huge boost, decreasing the worry in the administrators minds. Of course, it hadn't quite sunk in yet that the power of the newest drive also gave them the ability to handle more problems in a shorter amount of time, so the expectations on them had also risen. When that happened, they would be just as harried as they always had been, only more competent due to reasons beyond their control.

Just like any other new invention that allowed Empires to run themselves better.

None of this mattered, of course, to Captain Jon Harlian. All he cared about were the jobs that he got, the crew of his ship, and his ship. The functioning of the Empire was something outside his notice unless it affected him personally and immediately. All of the furver over how the new drive would increase the well-being of all Empire subjects wasn't something that he really thought about much. For one thing, his on-board mechanic, Paul Shinriel had invented the damn thing for Jon's ship. The Empire got it second-hand. Which was just as well, since it was occasionally... buggy.

Jon burst into the engine room as a burst of steam came from the top of the spinning apparatus. "What happened _this_ time?" he demanded of the man already inside.

"Just a broken part that I have a replacement for," Paul replied. "It's not a big deal. Gonna take me..."

"**Seven minutes and forty-two seconds, give or take thirty seconds.**"

Paul paused a moment to roll his eyes. "I really wish you wouldn't do that, Quicksilver."

"**I know my Master well.**"

Jon had heard similar exchanges before, so he cut back to the point. "Better not take any longer. We can't afford to be dead in the water like this when the patrol comes by."

"How much time do we have?"

"Something less than ten minutes. Give Riley a buzz the instant she can punch it."

"Yes, Captain."

Jon spun smartly on his heel and walked back out of the engine room into the long hallway that made up the center of the _Silver Blur_. He was met immediately by his first mate, Naomi, who had, in Jon's eyes, an annoying penchant for appearing silently behind her Captain. Jon was just used to this behaviour enough that he no longer jumped, merely started. "All the cargo's secure?" He received a nod in response. "Good. You don't need to be strapped down for another five minutes or so, but there's not going to be much warning, so get there sooner rather than later, okay?" Another nod. It was at this point in the conversation that Jon lost his ability to know what to say next to his second-in-command, so he settled for nodding back at her before stepping beyond her and further down the hallway that he had been heading down in the first place. She fell into step behind him, as she generally did.

"We dead in the water?" a head popped out of one of the small living quarters that were accessible along the hallway.

"Easily fixed, according to our wrench wrangler back there," Jon replied, jerking his thumb over his shoulder and not breaking stride. "We'll be underway soon enough. You should probably get yourself strapped down for the sudden jerk _Silver_'s causing us lately."

Ifil Himez, a big man in his thirties, grinned. "Not all that big of a jerk. I've had worse."

"Only you, Ifil," Jon said as he passed the man in the doorway. "It's on your bruised head if you ignore me."

The big man laughed aloud before closing the door and retreating into his room again. The Captain and his first mate continued along the hallway accompanied by the sharp clicks of their footsteps. Jon had gotten so used to Naomi following him that he was less at ease when he could only hear his own footsteps echoing off of the metal walls that surrounded him on his ship. Even his PMD didn't seem quite as stuck to his hip as Naomi, but Jon didn't mind. There were a lot of things on the ship that were like that.

As the Captain came to the mid-point of the hallway, where the door to the kitchen was on his left side, he swung his head into the open portal to spot Wendy eating something at the large table. "We'll be underway pretty soon," Jon said without preamble, "you probably should strap down."

"Fan- oo, 'Aptah," she said in response. Then she swallowed, then took another bite. "oo oo ihn we'll 'ave ahts uh 'onee?"

Jon blinked at her for a moment, then shook his head. "I don't know what you just said, and it's probably better if I don't." And then he was continuing down the hallway. He didn't bother to look in the meeting and communications room on the other side of the middle of the hallway, and he didn't need to look into the cargo bay, which had an entrance just below where he stood, to know that all the cargo was stored and strapped down properly. Naomi had been in charge; it had been done right.

The last few quarters off of the hallway were not currently occupied at that time, so the rest of the long walk from the engine all the way to the bridge was otherwise uneventful. Both the Captain and his first mate entered the bridge and sat down in the chairs that they were accustomed to being in when they went to the bridge. Riley Takahama spun around in her chair when the first footstep reached her ears. "So, what's the story?"

"A few minutes. He'll call up the line when she's ready to go, and you should punch it the instant he does." Jon leaned back in his chair after strapping in, closing his eyes and rubbing the bridge of his nose.

Riley nodded her assent to his command, though he did not see it. "I'm good with that, Captain. The readings we're getting put whatever's coming at six or seven minutes out at this point; as long as we can beat that, then we're golden."

"Good enough, then," Jon said.

There was a beat of silence, then the sounds of Riley spinning in her chair so that she faced the console. A few beeps as she pressed the buttons to prep for the procedure of getting the hell out of there. Only a moment later, the comm crackled to life, and Paul's voice could be heard through the console. "I'm good, Riley! Punch it!" And she did nearly instantly. With a violent jerk that sent Jon's head nowhere only because he was already leaning heavily on the headrest, the _Silver Blur_ shot off into the vastness of inter-dimensional space.

"We're on our way to that crazy place where you got this job in the first place," Riley said as she made a few finishing touches to the commands on the console. "I don't know how you found someone on the up-and-up though. Are you sure we're gonna get paid for this one?"

"Only as sure as we ever are."

"Right," Riley agreed. "Better than the Empire. Damn, it takes them nearly a month to get us cash. I'm glad you only work for them when we're ahead of the game on bills and have bunches of spare parts."

"It's a survival instinct," Jon replied. His eyes remained closed. "How long are we underway?"

"About four hours, maybe?" Riley said. "It's not a huge distance, and this time we don't have to worry about the fact that I might have overshot."

"Alright. I guess no one will grieve overmuch if I take a short nap?"

"Not me, Captain. You certainly earned the rest this time, though. That was some impressive long-range shooting you pulled off there. I don't know if I could have pulled the same stunt with this whole ship helping me out and just as small a target!"

"Thank you, Riley." Jon unstrapped and rose to leave the bridge. Naomi followed suit. Jon walked out into the hallway with his first mate following close behind. He stepped to the first door on the left, which led to his own quarters. Naomi had insisted, in the way she would insist on things – silently – that she be in the bunk that was across the hallway from his. He didn't mind giving her that concession. He wouldn't mind a lot more concessions where she was concerned. She insisted on the status quo, though, so he had learned to let it lie.

Once inside his room, he took a moment to sigh, but then, without any real preamble (or even bothering with turning on the light), he stripped to his boxers and pulled down the bed that could be stored in the wall. Then he was in the bed, with his eyes closed.

This state of affairs lasted ten minutes. Maybe. Tops.

Blue eyes stared up at the dark ceiling as he sighed again. He couldn't get the image out of his head. It had been a very close thing, to get out of some of their jobs. Oh sure, there were people firing magical blasts at him every day; a day that it didn't happen was one that he probably didn't make any money, and therefore a dangerous day in a different way. But this time was particularly harrowing. It's only because tracing the new engine was so difficult still that they had a chance to get out. If they had been using a conventional propulsion system, their trail would have been easy to follow. And if they had been chased by a patrol that happened to be upgraded with the latest...

He shook his head. He couldn't be sure what kind of engine the Imperial Scout that had nearly caught them with... quasi-legal... cargo had, but he did know that it wasn't conventional. They were getting better, and it wouldn't be all that long before someone in the Imperial Research and Development finally came to the same conclusion that Paul had just a few years before and then outrunning a Scout when they had been outmaneuvered would be impossible again. If this situation happened then... or after tracing their engine became easier (or possible)...

The sigh he let out this time was gusty and frustrated. He'd been down this line of thought many times, particularly in the past few months. There was nothing more detrimental to his sleep than these worries. He rolled over and tried again.

This time his thoughts became occupied with the new worlds that had been "discovered" just beyond the border of the Empire that the _Silver Blur_ liked to frequent. They, of course, were new only in the sense that the Empire could now reach them, and were starting the process they generally used of pretending to be a lot more benevolent than they actually were, calling themselves the "Coalition of Allied Worlds" which was merely hiding what they actually had in mind. This would last until the world noticed that the Empire actually held all the cards and weren't going to take no for an answer, then a short expected uprising quickly culled with a very sharp amount of violence, and then capitulation. It was the same every time. Jon had personally watched it six or seven times himself, liking to stick to the outer edges of Empire space.

He didn't particularly want to watch another one, but he knew that he would, and he'd still smuggle in and smuggle out things they needed and did not need... and it would all be rendered somewhat moot as most of the people he worked with would be dead when all was said and done. And then he'd move forward to keep up with the edge.

Jon rolled over again, attempting to get to sleep again.

Only to have the screen in his room flash. "I'm coming out of superextrafast in another two minutes, Captain," Riley's voice said through a speaker across the room from the bed, though given the size of the room it wasn't far enough away from the bed for Jon not to jump at the first word. "You should probably strap in." Then the screen went dead again.

Jon rubbed his eyes as he looked at the clock that shown from the ceiling. Well, what do you know; it had already been four hours and fifteen minutes. He really had been tired if that kind of time passed without him noticing even a little bit.

He didn't bother going all the way up to the bridge, instead using the chair that was in his room for precisely this reason. When the jerk that was harder to deal with (as it jerked him _forward_ instead of back into the seat) had passed, he unstrapped from the harness and got up, rubbing his chest where one of the restraints had probably bruised him. "Just my luck," he mumbled to himself.

Preparations for disembarking the _Silver Blur_ were fairly simple considering that there was cargo in the equation, but Jon liked to be collecting his fee before the cargo had been completely unloaded. Ifil, Wendy and Paul took that job most of the time, while Jon and Naomi went to collect and Riley made sure that if a quicker than planned getaway became necessary, it could be done. Jon didn't think that this particular job would require it, but it was certainly possible, just like with any other job. Even ones with feds. Those could even be the most dangerous.

Jon and Naomi disembarked the docked ship from the communications room via a teleport over to the place where the client had been waiting. As the first crate came off of the ship, he said to the man, who insisted on keeping his hood up, "Satisfactory?"

"...Indeed," the man said. There was a touch of grudging in the tone, but not enough that Jon could call him on it even were they friends. "Well enough, I guess. Your payment." He gestured to a box that was in front of him. Jon immediately opened it and began rummaging through the money that was inside. Naomi merely stared at the man. Considering how condescending the man had been throughout the whole process, Jon sincerely hoped that the silent girl's stare made the client uncomfortable.

Once he was satisfied that the box contained the proper amount of coin, Jon nodded and closed the box. "We'll be done in a few minutes and be on our way, then." He tried to lift the box, but it was fastened to the table in some way. Jon resisted the urge to sigh, but only barely.

"That box doesn't move until all of my product is offloaded where I specified."

Jon looked up at the client with as little care in his eyes as he could possibly muster. "No wonder you pay so well."

There was no outward reaction from the man. Jon thought that this was just as well. Jon continued to look dispassionately at the man. "Mil, could you open a link to Ifil, please?"

"**Certainly.**"

After a short pause, "_'Sup, dude?_"

"Let me know the instant all the cargo's offloaded. It's sticky money." Still looking for a reaction from the cloaked man. Jon thought it was probably a useless exercise, but hey, at least it was something to do beyond be ready for things to go... south.

Laughter came on the other line. "_Can do, Boss. You know the word._" The connection clicked off, ending the slightly audible background static.

"It'll be a few minutes," Jon said mildly. "So I'll just stand right here and wait. How's that?"

The man didn't say anything. Jon was getting antsy now. He stole a look over at Naomi, who had her head cocked to one side but did not have any sort of expression on her face. She agreed with him.

He wouldn't be able to explain how he knew that, though.

His gaze returning to the client, he pulled out a pocket watch from his coat and looked at it. Six-oh-three. Riley was going to be late about making dinner since she was probably going to have to deal with some problem or other, as usual, even though it was her turn in the galley. Perhaps he should fix the meal for the crew this time. It would certainly be faster than waiting for the pilot to finish with her duties. Or perhaps it was time to make Ifil take a turn. He hadn't in quite a few nights. Maybe he'd make something other than spaghetti. Well, that last one wasn't possible...

The connection crackled to life again, settling into the light static of before. "_All set, Boss. Riley says we're all clear, too._" Well, at least something went right on this pick-up.

"All your items have been offloaded successfully," Jon said, looking up at the man and away from his watch. "Do you need one of your men to check it, or are you already watching them with someone?"

The man shrugged before saying, "Don't need you anymore, then, do I?" And then there was a deep navy blue blast heading straight for Jon's face. It never got there. Naomi had jumped in front of Jon, a white shield erupting from her momentarily, but long enough that the blue blast had been deflected away. Naomi landed on his other side already in her Barrier Clothing, and this gave him enough time to act.

"Mil! Startup!"

"**Certainly. Startup. **_**Rifle Mode.**_"

The snug feeling of the Barrier Clothing solidified around him before anything else happened, though it wasn't fast enough that he didn't have to immediately dodge another strike that came right after the barrier formed around him. As powerful as magical defenses were, he'd rather not take a head-on strike from this bozo.

"Naomi!" Jon called. The girl suddenly was in front of the man, which finally seemed to give him a little pause, and he was forced a step backward before he could react consciously to the threat in front of him. While Naomi kept him busy, Jon pointed his rifle at the box. "Mil! Store!"

"**Storing. Storing complete.**"

"We're outie," Jon said then, spinning on his heel and sprinting away from the man. "Paul! Grab us!"

"_I got a lock_," his engineer told him cheerfully. "_Three more seconds._"

He was true to his word, as after dodging only one more strike, this time from someone that he hadn't noticed coming up on him, Jon felt the transportation take effect, and he was inside the teleportation pad in the _Silver Blur_. Naomi was beside him. After quickly making sure that Naomi was no worse for wear, Jon turned to Paul, who was grinning at the console. "Everything's good?"

Paul nodded. "Yup. Easy peasy. Little shit had no idea Wendy was behind him when he tried his shenanigans. We knew you might be a little longer, if the money was particularly sticky, so we're all ready to go. You did get the money, right?"

Jon hefted the rifle over his shoulder. "It was no problem." Then came his favorite part. "Riley!"

"_Sir!_"

"Get us out."

"_Roger!_"


	2. From the Com Room

**Chapter 2: From the Com Room**

It was fascinating, sometimes, at how each member of the crew reacted to on-planet leave. Jon didn't pay all that close attention to his charges when he let them loose across wherever (generally Kalim, but sometimes they had the opportunity to rest elsewhere). However, there were times when he just couldn't avoid learning what the crew was up to.

Riley liked to shop. When offloaded onto a planet, she headed into some market or a store or whatever seemed to be available and had at least one new article of clothing when she returned to the ship. What else she did was a mystery, but Jon had a feeling that it was all she did. She was one of the members of the crew that didn't complain much about long times without leave. He wondered how she fit all the clothes he saw her in in her room, though. Not that he'd go in.

Ifil... he was fond of bars. Not of bar fights, oddly, but he loved a stiff drink in him. Jon had gone drinking with him one time only to barhop because the bars they picked got a fight less than ten minutes into their visit. Four separate times. Jon had actually been impressed at how quickly Ifil had gotten the two of them out despite being in the middle of the last fight. After that, though, Jon had stayed away from bars with Ifil. It just seemed like so much work to have a good time. Or even be able to enjoy a whole beer.

Paul had been the easiest to figure out. He liked heading to a sport contest if he could wrangle it, and he managed tickets for less money more often than Jon had realized was possible. Paul had even managed enough tickets for the whole crew once. It had been enjoyable, but Jon preferred watching any sort of thing like that on a screen. No mingling with the great unwashed. He liked his personal space, thank-you-very-much.

Wendy... no one knew anything about Wendy's habits. She disappeared... and came back. No fuss, no objects to or from. Just... gone and back. Nor did she answer any questions about it. Not that Jon asked. Or listened when others asked. That would have been improper.

Naomi was the easiest. She just followed Jon.

Jon went out to buy things when it was for the good of the ship, but most of the time he was the one who (along with Naomi) remained on the ship to make sure that there wasn't any funny business attempted with his _Silver Blur_. It was his ship; it made sense that he had the most protectiveness toward it. Besides, his crew had earned the leave, and he didn't like to take away from any of it if he could help it.

This time was no exception... for any of the crew. Riley was off with her share as quickly as the ship had touched down and she could walk away from the con. Ifil was off with his in a leisurely stroll shortly after. Paul had invited Jon to the 'tackle' game that was in town, but Jon turned him down. Wendy was gone at some point in all the hubbub, leaving the Captain and first mate remaining on the boarding ramp. Jon hadn't even seen Wendy leave, but he knew she was already off the ship somehow.

"Well, that starts our six hours of break," Jon said aloud, stretching. "Sure you don't want to go out?" he asked his companion. He knew the answer.

"I don't."

"Alright," Jon replied. He walked back into the ship and closed up the boarding ramp before leading the way back to the kitchen, where snacks were duly fetched (a brownie for Jon, a pair of cookies for Naomi and milk for the pair), and then off to the communications room, where Jon flipped around the nets for news of events in his neck of the woods. He wasn't all that successful.

"You too can be a star! For three easy pay-"

_Crackle_

"-another way to run the track is to make sure that you stay on the insi-"

_Crackle_

"ONLY YOU CAN PREVENT FOREST FIRES!"

The giant bear nearly made Jon drop his snack, which would have been quite unfortunate. He flicked on.

_Crackle_

"But that leaves Feilhauser on a run down the left side! He's all alone, there's no one who's going to catch him! Just the keeper to beat... he makes a great move to the inside and lifts the ball to... NO! HE MISSED HIGH! What a glorious chance to end the clean sheet _wasted!_"

If it weren't 7-0, he might have watched that game.

_Crackle_

"-his own daughter.

"In other local news, there have been readings of large magical events, such as a ship travelling through dimensional space, on the furthest reaches of the sensors on some of the _gamma_ border worlds." Jon sat up to listen closer, as did his partner. "As no contact has been made with the owners of these mysterious ships, the question remains as to whether this is just one of the ships from somewhere inside the Malainian Alliance who are just too lost to make it back to civilization, or if there's another world that has managed to create dimensional transfer abilities. Alliance officials decline to comment, but the local patrols have been fanning out to farther and farther reaches of dimensional space lately. Maybe they're being careful about the first contact with such a civilization. But all of that is speculation. For in-depth analysis, we turn to Ron Stevens, our Kalim Sensory Office Reporter. Ron?"

"Thank you, Stan." The anchor had faded out of the frame, to be replaced by a man with the background of what was obviously the local world's dimensional sensor station in orbit. "The first sightings were only five days ago, but the sightings have become more and more common in the days since. Our latest information indicates that only one of the signatures has been a ship; the rest have been simply larger and larger magical workings. Even the most in-depth analysis of these readings hasn't determined what the goal of such magical powers are being used for. None of it, however, seems to be directed in the direction of Alliance worlds, and that's plenty for this analyst. We will, however, continue to watch such strange readings and be sure to let you, our esteemed viewers, know when we know more about the mysterious phenomena. Stan?"

"Thank you for your report, Ron. A Kalim native has one the Alliance lottery, but has not yet come forward to receive his cash. He has only four more da-"

Flicking off the feed, Jon thought to himself for a second about the story. He then shook his head. It wasn't really the kind of thing that he was used to hearing from the news. Heck, he probably knew more about the worlds that didn't know about the existence of the Empire than anyone in the news industry. A long time ago he thought it was because citizens of the Empire weren't allowed to be on worlds that hadn't officially joined (or been 'convinced') yet. But he realized later that it was more that the citizens (and by extension, news organizations) just didn't care. It was a shame. Sometimes products that made lives easier were only available from such places.

It was for such reasons that he was able to get jobs out here, though, so he didn't mind so much. It was more of a question he asked himself about humanity on occasion: why not actually care about the universe around you? But no, everyone was all me, me, me. It was... disheartening.

At least there were some people who made sense. He looked over at Naomi, who took that moment to pop the rest of the cookie into her mouth while looking at him dispassionately. Well, 'making sense' wasn't exactly what he meant, anyway.

But the news did give him the idea that he should be the one to check this out. He had a fast ship, a quick-acting and talented crew (if he did say so himself)... all that was really stopping him was the fact that he couldn't think of a way to get paid for his efforts in figuring out what was behind these signals.

Jon was interrupted from his thoughts when the com gave the trilling sound that meant that someone was attempting to connect to him. How convenient. Maybe some money? Maybe enough money to take the time to investigate the outer edges of the known dimensional space? When the screen showed the local Magistrate's secretary, he instantly became less willing to do whatever they had in mind. "Horace!" he said, feigning pleasant surprise with all of his might. "What might I do for you this fine, fine day?"

Horace's lifted eyebrow told Jon that he had failed. Again. "I was under the impression that it was raining where your ship is docked."

Geez, a technicality on his assertion of a nice day? The stick up this guy's ass must've twisted upward an inch or two since Jon last saw him. "Any day I cut loose and relax is a fine day. What do you need, Horace?"

Horace looked simply like he'd rather be doing anything else but this, so it made sense that he cut the... ah... 'pleasantries'... if anything that Horace did could count as 'pleasant'... and got right down to business. "Have you heard about the signals that we have been picking up beyond the _gamma_ border?"

"I have. What of them?" Jon's eyebrows were up not because of his acting. Was his worst thorn about to hand him the precise mission he wanted for money?

"We want to know what they are, _now_, since the news feeds have started to pick up the story. We'd be in a little pickle if the Feds realized that we were picking up signals and not doing a damn thing about them. They're rather picky about the border like that."

"I hadn't heard." He _was!_

Horace gave him a look. "Since you seem to be around and available, the Magistrate figures you might be a good idea for this mission with that rumoured speedy ship that you're lounging about in just picking up dust instead of doing good for the Alliance."

"I'm listening."

Horace sighed. "Mercenaries; you all care about just one thing."

"Staying afloat. How much are you donating to the cause today, sir?"

"Twenty-thousand. No argument, no haggle. Take it or leave it."

Jon pretended to think about it. They were clearly desperate, as that was enough cash for a month's worth of missions, and nearly two-and-a-half months of 'staying afloat'. Plenty of time to get out to wherever this was, figure out what was going on, and then get back to Kalim. And have a leisurely time finding more missions for a few months. Jon idly wondered whether Horace knew that. It did bring up that it was possible they expected him to be _lost_ on the mission, and use it to justify bringing in a detachment of Imperial ships... maybe even a fleet, if Jon was willing to send back his mayday.

He wasn't. They probably knew _that_, though.

"Where am I going, then?"

Horace's picture shrunk into the upper-right-hand corner of the feed and the rest of the screen took on an animation of zooming out from a world that Jon had never seen before, until it was a tiny dot. "Our sensor ranges have expanded from when you last worked on a border patrol," Horace told him. "The old range is what was leaked to the press, so they don't know that we know precisely where these signals are coming from." A red circle appeared around the world, now a dot, that the screen had started all the way zoomed in on. "This is the target planet, currently codenamed '_Gamma Light_'. A green circle appeared all the way across the dimensional map, with a line connecting the two circles with the distance measured as "Sixteen thousand dimensional units away from Kalim, it's too far away for us to reach and come back in under a month. Rumor is that you could."

"If we did nothing there but thumb our nose, sure."

"You will be doing more than thumb your nose, but you can clearly do it faster than any units we have access to directly." Horace sneered a little bit, but he controlled it quickly. "You will determine what is doing whatever that is showing up on our sensors, and if you deem it prudent, stop it. Regardless of your actions pertaining to the phenomena, you are to give us a full report on the civilization there, particularly the party responsible for the large magical signatures."

Jon nodded. "Payment method?"

"Full payment upon your successful return." Alright, he _definitely _thought the _Silver Blur_ was going to explode out there.

"I'll take your job, then Horace. I'll need a clearance to head out in that direction when I lift-off; how long will that take?"

"Another three hours, at least."

"Plenty," Jon said. "I'll be underway just before 2100 local time."

"That's a long time," Horace said accusingly.

"Sure," Jon agreed. "I just got here and my crew needs at least a little of the down time I promised them. Twenty-one hundred, Horace."

"Fine," Horace answered, clearly unhappy as he closed the connection.

"Well," Jon said, turning to Naomi. "We have ourselves a job; we should probably make sure we have everything we need so that Paul and Riley can have us in tip-top shape for this one. We'll go once they're all back and someone can watch the ship." Naomi didn't answer, but that was probably because she realized that Jon was talking to himself.


	3. Unadministered Mission

**Unadministered Mission**

"_How _far out is it again?" The red-head asked for what was possibly the eighteenth time. Fate had lost count.

"It'll take twenty days for the ship to arrive at a point that we can teleport into the general location," Shari said. Fate was always amazed at the patience that the brown-haired engineer had.

Teana, Fate's new apprentice, though the official term for her position was an Enforcer Agent's Aide, sighed. "I keep thinking it's going to be twenty _hours_, like most of our other assignments so far."

Fate gave the aide a knowing look. "The first few missions with you have been nearby and easy. This one's more like far away and easy, likely, but it's far less controlled. We'll be the only ship out there, so if it happens to be more than we think it is, then it will be a true test. That's, at least what the Enforcer Corps seems to think."

Teana looked back at her mentor. "And what do you think?"

"That this isn't a test of your power or ability, but your patience for the kind of life you've signed up for."

Teana opened her mouth to reply, and then thought better of it, and her facial expression changed instantly. Once she had her idea straight in her head, she said, "It's very likely. I really wasn't happy when I heard that we were going to be out of the action for twenty days one way and six more the other."

"The way back will be easier than the way there, since you can get your paperwork done and rest from whatever trials await on Unadministered Six-hundred-seventy-eight."

Teana rose and gave a quick, smart salute to the newcomer. "Admiral!" Fate and Shari were more casual about their shows of respect, but they were nearly as quick.

"At ease," the Admiral said, mostly so that Teana wouldn't be so tense, Fate guessed. "Have the three of you been briefed on the specifics of the mission, yet?"

"No, sir," Fate replied. "We know only the destination, not the mission."

"Then allow me." Admiral Tiran brought up a few screens. "One of our Administrated Worlds, namely Uran, has been noticing large amounts of magical activity on a world that is just within their sensor range. This is the first time that this world has had any sort of magical signals emanating strongly enough that we have had a reason to take any look at it, so it was assigned the 678 designation at that time. This was a week ago. It was decided at the time that it would be the best idea to watch and wait, just in case.

"Since that time, there has been no change in the situation. The magical signal has varied at times, but it has not yet stopped broadcasting from the world. Our mission is to determine the cause of these magical signals and determine if it is of interest of the TSAB. Then, we are to take appropriate action, whatever that action may be. That action will be my decision, unless you are in danger of your life down on the ground."

"Sir," Fate said tentatively. "Does that mean that we are to stand back if perceived innocents are dying and wait for your orders?"

The admiral sighed. "Yes. My orders are very clear that we are not to interfere in anything that is even possibly a mere local dispute. We are to intervene in the cases of a Lost Logia that is causing the magical signals, or the discovery of the same, or if there is a perceived danger to the TSAB, TSAB personnel, or dimensional stability. As it is an unadministrated world, particularly one that we have never involved ourselves in the affairs of, we cannot afford to cause undue issues. On other unadministrated worlds, we at least have a familiarity with how we should operate within their world, but not on brand new ones.

"That brings us to our secondary mission, which will only come into play if we determine that someone who is native to the world in question is responsible for the phenomena that we are investigating. We are to determine what the proper operating measures are that we should use when operating on this world, which includes learning government structure, or structures, and the general technology and magical levels. I want you to keep that mission in mind at all times, as some of those pieces of information could be essential to our primary mission."

"Is there anything that we already know about the magical signal?" Shari asked.

"Very little," was the Admiral's answer. "I will make sure that you have a copy of all the readings we have so that you can draw your own conclusions from it during our trip. You'll be primarily responsible for the locating of the precise coordinates where the phenomena is taking place, whether it is moving, and determining any danger to the Enforcers."

"Sir."

"Enforcer Harlaown, you and your trainee will be responsible for visual confirmation of any conclusions that Specialist Finieno draws from the signal, as well as gathering any more necessary information, and then taking any action that I deem necessary."

"Yes, sir. Permission to speak freely, Admiral?" Fate asked.

"Granted."

"You don't normally keep such strict terms on us, sir. What is it about this mission that has changed that policy?"

The admiral closed his eyes. "I am under heavy investigation for some of our previous missions. You weren't on ship at the time... you were on your temporary transfer to the Ground Forces division. Riot Force Six, was it?"

"Yes, sir."

He nodded. "I had another Enforcer at the time. His name was Gerard Hilm, and my Engineer at the time," he nodded to Shari, "was Paige Shion. They were some of the best, though it was hard to remember that Gerard had a different set of abilities than you, Enforcer Harlaown, and Paige had a different focus than you, Aide Finieno. As they were good enough that my operations didn't have to change much, I allowed them about as much freedom as you are used to in missions out on the edges of TSAB-regulated dimensional space. It was a mistake.

"Enforcer Hilm killed a diplomat and Specialist Shion was captured as a result of the nasty aftermath. I lost quite a few of my detachment during the confusion and fighting. The diplomatic incident caused probably means that the world will never accept being administered, and it's coming closer and closer to having a technology level high enough to produce the ability to teleport to other worlds. And it happened on my watch."

Fate had a sad smile. "And so you can't even trust your most trusted Enforcer."

"Between my past and her," he indicated Teana with a small nod, "future, this mission is under a lot of scrutiny, even if we remove the fact that some rather highly ranked members of the TSAB are rather spooked by this magical signal. Supposedly, they haven't seen the like since... why, I think it was your first official mission with the TSAB, Enforcer Harlaown. On Unadministered Ninety-seven."

Fate was truly surprised at this. "It reminds people of the final Book of Darkness incident?"

Admiral Tiran nodded again. "Somehow, the signals remind them of the same sort of thing, and it's been about the amount of time that the Book had normally waited to reappear, give or take."

Fate frowned. "Yet they know that the Book, the Tome of the Night Sky, is in the hands of a true Mistress and we won't be having any more Book of Darkness incidents?"

"That doesn't matter to a lot of the big-wigs that we're talking about here," he reminded her. "The Book Incidents were a regular occurrence for as long as anyone alive can remember. Those who were in the service for more than three or four of them won't ever believe that they aren't coming again, no matter how much evidence you place in front of them."

"Why send me, then?" Fate asked. "They know that I would never believe that it's the "Book of Darkness", since I don't believe that the book even exists in that form anymore!"

"Because you are an Enforcer that they know would be able to handle the situation well if it _were_ the Book."

"Then why not send me with _Chrono_, with all due respect to you, Admiral?" Fate's red eyes had a fierce look. "And send Nanoha, and send Hayate and the Knights who _clearly_ would know how to handle the Book, the Defense Program, and anything else the Book would be able to throw at a TSAB force?"

"Admiral Harlaown is busy with making sure that a protest that has turned violent doesn't take any more lives, as he and his crew have shown to be very adept at the task," the admiral responded. "Besides, they want him close. The whole TSAB cannot afford Instructor Takamachi doing anything that takes her away from her students for very long, as her tutelage has created more skilled members of crews than almost any other Instructor in the TSAB ever, and no one in the upper echelons trust Commander Yagami farther than they can throw her."

"With all due respect, sir, do you?"

"I do, because you have shown yourself to me personally as an excellent judge of others, and I tend to trust that judgment. It has even saved my life on more than one occasion. I will not disrespect you, either, which is clearly what you are implying such an opinion would be."

Fate closed her eyes. "I'm sorry, sir, that was uncalled for."

"Don't think on it," the admiral replied with a tight smile. "These were all things I think you needed to be reminded of; the climate in which we work isn't the most friendly it could possibly be, but it's all we have. I try to shield those under my command from such influences, but that's what's affecting my orders for you now. Remember that this mission is important to people above our clearance for reasons that we may even find silly. But they, particularly when I am currently in such disgrace, can effectively make our lives hell for a single misstep, if they wish."

"I see, Admiral. We'll do it as you see fit, with the clear and obvious exception you already pointed out."

"See that you do," the admiral said, turning to leave the room. He stopped right on the threshold. "I could not afford to lose the best Enforcer to grace this ship, Fate."

"Thank you, sir." Then he had left.

Teana sat down hard. "That was... enlightening."

Shari was frowning, which was always a worrying sign. "Yes, it was," she said. "I'm not sure what to think of it, though."

Fate now had a headache. She rubbed her head lightly. "We have plenty of time to think about it on this voyage." As much as she didn't want to think about such depressing subjects. Especially where it affected her best friends.


	4. Underway

**Underway**

"We have a mission," Jon said to his assembled crew.

"That was fast," Ifil said. "Normally you'd only start looking now, and we'd finally get one sometime before sleep, and we'd leave in the morning."

"Ah, but this time, I got a call from our good friend Horace."

Riley made a face. "That perv? Ugh."

Jon did _not_ want to know how Horace had earned that appellation, so he let the use of it go. "He's paying top dollar this time, which means either they're so desperate that they really really must have us on this mission, or they think we're not going to come back from it."

"All payment upon return, boss?" Wendy asked.

"Yup."

"They think it'll kill us. You don't?"

"The issue is that they don't _know_ what's creating a magical signature quite a bit a ways from Kalim. So, we're to be the ones to check it out. The mission parameters didn't specify our actions in certain cases, and I plan to use those inconsistencies to make sure that we can get out of there alive _and_ demand full payment. Besides, we get to see a world we've never been to before. I say that's a win/win."

"Maybe for you," Ifil said. "I'm not so hot about seeing new places. The money's good though, right?"

"Best you could ever hope for. I'm shocked the feds are offering that much for anything, much less a mission for us."

"Sounds good to me, then," Ifil replied. "Just have to make sure we don't make a stupid misstep in the unknown."

"I haven't even told you what the mission parameters _are_."

"Eh," Ifil waved Jon's concern off. "My concern is making sure that the only heads that crack are ones that aren't meant to be on pillows on the _Silver Blur_ at the end of the day. I don't really care what the 'mission parameters' are, beyond that. That's your job, and Naomi's."

Jon decided it was best not to argue. He _had_ said that he was good with the mission. He outlined the mission for the _rest_ of the crew, the ones that generally liked to think for themselves.

"Is there anyone who doesn't like the idea?" Jon asked the assembled crew once he'd finished outlining the premise. "They made it easy on us, to the point that I have a feeling they think they actually do know what's going on there, and are sending whatever cannon fodder they can find..."

"That would be us," Ifil said in a stage whisper to Paul, who couldn't help his chuckle.

"...to make sure that they are right. At least, that's the theory. We're not ones for theory, though and the money's too good even with the possibility that it will be a very dangerous mission."

"It's not like we take all that many 'safe' missions, Captain," Paul pointed out.

"Right," Jon agreed. "Objections?"

There was silence. That is, until Ifil made a sound eerily like a cricket's chirp.

Jon felt like that was long enough. "Good, we're out of here as soon as everyone's ready. It's going to be quite the long trip."

The crew scattered quietly. Paul back to the engine room, Riley straight to the bridge, Wendy to the bridge to make sure that if a weapon needed to be fired, it would be (this always made Jon nervous, but she hadn't done it stupidly yet, so he let her continue to man the weapons), Ifil went to his room to strap in, and Jon and Naomi went to the communications room to make sure that the local flavor didn't think they were doing something stupid. "We better have that late-launch clearance Horace promised us," Jon said under his breath.

"We will."

Jon's head spun to look at his first mate, who was looking back at him without an expression on her face. "Well, at least you're probably right," he allowed.

Turned out that he had nothing to worry about.

"_Here it is. The _Silver Blur_ is clear for takeoff on vector 6-6-1. As long as your sure you want to head out into the nothingness that is without Alliance patrols, I can't stop you._"

Yay. A Tower Officer with a sense of humor. "Jobs are jobs. _Silver Blur_ confirming takeoff, vector 6-6-1." He flicked a switch that changed where his voice would be heard to the bridge. "Vector 6-6-1, Riley. Punch it."

"_Yessir! Expect a five minute lane._"

As Jon flicked the switch back to going out to the Planetary Tower. "We're expecting a five-minute window where we will be taking up the lane, Tower."

"_There's no one else cleared for that lane until... thirteen-hundred tomorrow. I don't think you'll have any trouble clearing before we need it again. Good voyage. _Killer Instinct_, your lane will close in a minute, please respond to get alternate routing._"

Jon flicked the switch back. "Take your time, Riley, we have several hours before they need the lane again."

"_I knew there was an advantage to leaving this late._"

It was always more convenient to leave at night, though it wasn't always easy to get the clearance to do so from the night side of the world. Probably because it was harder to see other ships if somebody made a mistake. There had been a few close calls lately, and Riley had probably been feeling the strain. All the more reason to take advantage of whatever was driving Horace to give them practically every consideration he had asked for.

Maybe he should have asked for a gift certificate to take his whole crew for dinner? Ah, well, he'd missed that chance. The money would have to do for financing any sort of celebration that he felt necessary later.

"_We're clear of the worldspace,_" Riley's voice informed him from the speakers next to the communications device. "_Setting course to _Gamma Light_. We won't be having any more controls, so you don't have to be in the Com Room once we're underway, Captain._"

Then Riley's voice came over the all of the speakers outside of the Com Room. "_Standby for jump._

"_Three, two, one. Jump._"

A wrenching jerk, and they were underway. And Jon had a crick in his neck.

~******~

"Well, that's everything," Paul said, wiping his hands on a towel as he walked onto the bridge. "She'll run well without much supervision for most of the trip now."

"Great," Wendy said from the Gunner's seat. "Now we get to be bored for a while. Over a week, right?"

"Closer to two," Paul corrected, sitting in one of the chairs that wasn't actually attached to a station on the bridge. "It's quite a long way. It's actually really impressive that the sensor station on Kalim could manage to get any signal from that far out."

"It makes sense, though," Riley said, leaning back in her pilot's chair and stretching. "It's the border worlds that really need the long-range sensors that are developed. The best ones are probably shipped out to border worlds rather than wasted on core worlds."

"But when has it been typical for the Alliance to do what was smart?" Paul asked.

Riley snickered. "Point." She spun in her chair so that she was facing the other two on the bridge. Her face sobered. "I can't believe it's only been a couple days since we made that delivery on Capchen."

Wendy looked at her with a blank expression. "It's Pura now, Riley."

"Even with what we do on a regular basis," Riley said, her eyes down, "I hadn't ever seen that much death at once."

"That's what happens when there's an Agent present," Wendy said.

"I'd heard of them before, from you or Ifil or sometimes even the Captain, but I'd never seen the aftermath of one up close before," Paul said. "What had they done to deserve that?"

"It was time," Wendy said. When she got blank looks from the other two, she clarified. "Time for the planet to be cowed. Time to show them that they were Pura, and not Capchen anymore."

Paul looked away. "Monstrous."

"You fought him, right, Wendy?" Riley asked.

"Yeah… He got away, though. I shouldn't have engaged him, really. I was so angry… it was only because Ifil was there that I didn't get cut down."

"I'm glad he was there," Riley said quietly, earning a small smile from Wendy.

"They're… so…" Paul couldn't find the word he was looking for. "Ugh. An interworld organization is a good thing, on its face, but those idiots…!"

"It's impressive, actually," Wendy cut in. "They've managed to bring so many worlds under their control; and we don't even have an accurate count of how many worlds are loyal, how many have resistances, how many there are in total… there's too much that they keep secret for us to know any of that."

"We probably have a better idea than most, sadly," Paul griped.

"Probably," Wendy agreed. "We're the ones who have been attempting to make sure that anyone who wants to resist, can… providing offensive PMDs and the like… is this even moral? We've been helping people to their deaths, after all."

"I don't know," Paul said, while Riley suddenly found something to do on the console. "It doesn't seem like a very effective strategy, but the Captain knows that, I think. I also don't think it's his goal. He's got another goal, though he hasn't told me about it."

"Maybe…" Wendy said. "But the Alliance seems to be doing well enough, even with their overbearing tactics of expansion into worlds with magical ability. It's a wonder that they don't take over worlds that don't have that ability yet, since that would be so easy for them, even if we were to help the locals."

"Well, there's the official reason," Paul said. "But we all know that they hardly ever are in for something for the official reason. Generally there's something else… some other purpose that they have for doing anything."

Riley humphed. "It can't be that they have no need to govern those without the magical ability to travel from one world to another."

"But if there's some other reason, we don't know it," Wendy said mildly. "It's not like we have a good view of the Chairman's thoughts."

"Everyone knows that the Alliance is ruled by the Council, and that the Chairman is the de facto ruler considering that he's got only worldmates as his fellow Councilmen," Riley said.

"Not that most of the core worlders mind. Most of the things that the Alliance does so far in are very different than the Alliance that exists out here. It's like two completely different organizations. One bloodthirsty, cutthroat and ambitious, and the other firm, evenhanded and free. It's hard to reconcile the two, having lived both on a core world and out here."

"Do you ever think about going back?" Riley asked her.

Wendy blew out a sigh. "Occasionally. Most of the time, though, I remember that out here is the truth… in there is the lie."

There was a short silence. Paul broke it. "Even if it isn't moral… even if we are encouraging their deaths…"

"Not always; remember, some of these people would fight anyway, regardless of whether we gave them the ability to stand on their own two feet in one," Ifil said, coming onto the bridge and flopping onto one of the unused seats. "We're just giving them the ability to actually do something about it before they die. I think they'd die anyway."

Wendy looked thoughtful, while Paul looked more insistent. "Still," Paul continued, "even if it's the most immoral thing that we do… I trust that the Captain has a good reason for doing it."

"We all do," Wendy reminded him. "Otherwise, we wouldn't be following him beyond the edge of the known universe."

"The Captain is something special to all of us," Riley said. She got nods from the other three present.

"Is he asleep?" Wendy asked Ifil.

"Probably; I saw him go into his bunk, and Naomi into hers. They're down for the count, I think."

"It's gonna be a long voyage," Riley said, while she stretched again. "I hope everyone has entertainment for themselves for the flight."

Wendy laughed while Ifil smacked her. Paul struggled to hide a grin. "Just for that," Ifil said, "I should decline to spar with you over this trip." Riley spun around in her chair and gave Ifil her most effective puppy-dog-eyes look, and he immediately relented. "Oh… all right… dammit…" Which only set off Wendy again. And Paul couldn't hold it in anymore. Riley's brilliant smile in response made Ifil forget about it.

But it was, indeed, a long and boring journey ahead of them. Each of them found ways to entertain themselves while they were awake, and made sure that someone was on the bridge to monitor all the systems at all times… generally Paul or Riley, though occasionally Wendy did it so that the others could take some sort of break. Wendy and Ifil trained a lot in the cargo hold, where Ifil had installed a Stationary Device that measured the power of strikes. Naomi and the Captain were often in the mess, making sure that they were okay on food for a while. The long journey passed. Longer for some, shorter for others, but it passed all the same.


	5. The Signal

**Chapter 5: The Signal**

Tea walked out of the exercise room with a towel in her hand that she wiped across her brow again. When she spotted Shari walking by in the corridor, she said, "You know, I don't generally use all of these facilities on the ship, but they're really nice!"

Shari stopped and giggled. "They are. You use the training area all the time, though I imagine that's not as much fun for you."

Teana shrugged. "It's not like I want Enforcer Harlaown to go easy on me; I'd never get better, particularly in some of the Enforcer exercises."

Shari nodded.

"Though, you're right," Teana admitted after a moment. "It is really frustrating at times."

Shari smiled. "I think you're doing really well, Teana. Oh, by the way, I should probably let you know: We're now outside of the confines of Administered Space."

Teana blinked. "What exactly does that mean?"

"It means that there are no Administered Worlds anywhere in front of us, above us or below us," Shari said, bringing up a 3D image in the air in front of her with a few taps on a keyboard she called up from seemingly nowhere. "This is the area we call "Administered Space"." A red sphere - well, roughly a sphere - , with a bunch of white and grey points inside. "It's the smallest area that includes all of the Administered Worlds when looking at their locations from a Dimensional Space perspective."

"The white dots are Administered Worlds and grey ones are Unadministered?" Teana asked.

"Yep! Not all of the worlds become Administered inside the area, but any Administered World needs to be in the space because that's our general operational area. We don't really have the manpower or resources to handle much outside of Administered Space."

"But we're leaving it now?"

"Correct," Shari said, and a blue point of light shot out from one of the central white points of light to make a blue line that ended just outside of the red sphere. "That's our path out from Mid so far. Our destination..." A point quite a ways beyond illuminated green. "Is there. So we're not quite there yet."

"But why do we care about this place," Teana asked, "when we care mostly about Administered Space, and our primary concern is about manpower and resources?"

"Well, remember our briefing from the Admiral, it's possible that this world is in a state that it might want to be administered. It would be quite a stretch in order to make it part of Administered Space, but the possibility means that we can't ignore it. A world that has the magical ability to go from world to world is one that the TSAB needs to be aware of, and probably make contact with. That's what our secondary mission is about. First, though, we need to see what this phenomena is about and figure out everything that the phenomena means for the world and the worlds around it."

Teana thought for a moment. "So that means we're now beyond help?"

Shari thought for a moment. "Not exactly. Though the farther we get outside Administered Space, the longer it would take for help to arrive. We could probably get some group of soldiers at E-rank or so from the nearest Administered planet with a little luck, but any actual Enforcer corps would require quite a bit of time, as this ship is about all we have out here. I think the nearest other ship is over a week from our boundary. It would be difficult for them to get here in a timely matter."

"Much less people we know that could help us."

Shari nodded. "Hayate... Nanoha... Most of Section Six... they'd all help us if we needed help, but they're nearly all on Mid, and you know precisely how long it would take for them to get here, once they had a ship. No, our best hope would be if Admiral Harlaown were somewhere nearby. Then we'd have good help quickly. Other than that, we're basically on our own, and we should retreat when we are not enough for the job."

Teana nodded. "That makes sense. We don't want to be biting off more than we can chew on this assignment, not when it would be difficult to be bailed out."

Shari agreed. "You know, Teana, it's possible that the Enforcer assigners have a lot of faith in you to place you on this mission."

"They have a lot of confidence in _Enforcer Harlaown_," Teana corrected. "I do too, you know."

"But you're her only backup," Shari reminded her. "I'm... not suited for combat, and my job is elsewhere. We have a squad on the ship, of course, but the leader of the squad is Rank D, and the rest of his squad are not even at his strength. Normally when they are unsure of an assignment in a place like this, they call in multiple Aces, like bringing Nanoha along, as she and Fate have always worked well together, or any of Hayate's Knights. Any of them would be excellent help for Fate that would be perfect, as they've been friends for a very long time.

"You may be Fate's partner now, but you are a new Enforcer and relatively unproven, other than your actions during the Cradle Incident. The Enforcer assigners are probably still testing you, but they're testing you in an environment that's hardly under their control. That probably means that they have a good deal of respect for your abilities."

There was a short pause. "As do I, which leads me to think this in the first place."

Teana was turning redder and redder, but she was saved from a response by the sudden intrusion of her mentor into the conversation. "Oh, Teana and Shari, I'm glad I caught you; we have a situation."

Shari turned and replied while Teana tried to recover her natural face color. "Oh? What kind of situation?"

"We're detecting the magic ourselves, live. We need to get down to the bridge." Shari immediately broke into a run, while Teana and Fate jogged a bit behind her.

"Were you able to figure out anything about it that we didn't already know?" Teana asked. She thought her face probably looked more or less normal by now.

"No, I didn't much take a look at it. I'd rather have Shari take a look at it than give my own personal experience to it. I'm not nearly as good at determining things about a magical signal as she is. I don't keep her around just because she's a Device Meister, you know."

"I know that!" Teana retorted hotly. "I just, I thought you would have figured something out from it, since this is a kind of thing you've probably dealt with before."

"I've never seen a signal like this one before, Teana." Fate replied softly enough for Teana to nearly not hear her over the loud footsteps of the three running through the corridor. This discovery stopped the conversation cold shortly before Shari burst through the door to the bridge. The door still was slightly open when Fate reached it, and she held it silently open for Teana, who was following close on her mentor's heels.

Shari immediately settled into her station. "Are you sending the feed into my box?" She shouted at the entire bridge.

Her answer came from the opposite side. "I am! And the feed's name is '678 signal'!"

Shari pulled up the feed and started putting it through some analyses as it came through. "Got it! Have we made sure that it's coming from Unadministered 678?"

"We have!" This time the answer was from the same side, only two stations over from where Shari was seated and typing furiously. "I'm trying to pinpoint location right now!"

"How close are you?"

"Not enough to have a good time of it. We'll be in better range in a few days, so hopefully we'll catch another one then."

Shari nodded. "That's probably smart. We'll have more opportunities before we get within teleport range." She continued to type quickly, bringing up more displays and closing old ones fast enough that Teana couldn't keep up with it fully.

"It's better to have seen the signal for myself before we start any heavy... wow..." Shari's sentence faded out, having made her point and focusing harder on the information flying in front of her. Of course, the increased concentration made it possible for her to move _faster_, which meant Teana decided that she might as well not watch for all she was able to process in the short time that anything was actually up on a display.

Fate leaned over to Teana. "Don't worry," the older woman assured her. "I don't even bother anymore."

Teana felt her nervousness drain away in a little with a quiet giggle. That's right, Shari _was_ really good at what she did. And Teana was not good at that, she was good at something else. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to keep the stress flowing out of her. She felt more assured after a moment, and opened her eyes just in time for all of the analysts to get more frantic.

"I lost the signal! The event's done!"

Shari cursed, which caused Teana to gasp, though Fate seemed to take it in stride. "I wasn't done with the analysis of the live feed yet! How far behind is my feed?"

"Thirty seconds!"

"Not enough time..." Shari said to herself. "Well, at least I got to see it before we have a real shot at it later. I think I have to stay near a terminal at all times, though."

"Why can't you use a recording for the analyses that you're doing?" Fate asked. "There's only so much you can do in such a short amount of time, and the signal can be recorded, or you wouldn't have been able to look at it before."

"Sure," Shari said, right after smacking her terminal with a fist as her feed ended. "I can take a look at the recording all I want, but anything I might be able to get out of it depends on the quality of the recording. The quality is determined by what we're pointing our sensors at, what frequency or frequencies we're taking into the recording, what the proper range of frequencies is that will give us the best picture of the phenomena... I got a better picture of what is happening this time than the one that I got during our briefings, but not as good as I'd need to figure out what kind of event would have caused such an emission, or even a half-decent location in the world. We already had it good enough to identify that it happened on the world, rather than any of the space around it... so as far as the location of the event... I'm no closer with that. No matter how much I look at the recording, I'll just be looking at information I already saw. I need to be able to filter it as it comes in."

"So we have to wait for another one," the Admiral mused. "Well, we have enough time that it's likely to happen again during our approach, so that's not outside the realm of possibility." He turned to Shari. "Please rest a lot in the next forty-eight hours. I want you to be on full alert from then until we get there just in case we see an event so that you can be there to filter it properly."

Shari saluted quickly, then yawned. "It's time for bed, isn't it?"

Fate took Shari by the shoulders and steered her out of the bridge. "For you, anyway. And you too, Teana. Be resting more than you train for the next few days. We may not get all that much of a break for a while once we get there."

"Yes ma'am," Teana said, saluting. She found herself caught between hoping that it was no big deal so that it wasn't something the TSAB really need to worry about and a big test for her own abilities as an Enforcer.

Well, at least it wasn't something that she could choose herself. She'd just have to wait and see just like everybody else.


	6. A Bad Feeling

**Chapter 6: A Bad Feeling**

"What do you mean, I'm not fit for duty?!" Jon yelled at his officer. "I'm your best sniper! You need me!"

"Sure, but I need you in the form that you're _sane_," the stern Corporal retorted. "I need you not flying off the handle and shooting before I want you to because an asshole pissed on your girlfriend's grave. _I need you to be a soldier!_" He let out a big breath before he continued. "Rest in your quarters. I'm going to need you tomorrow more than I need you now, so I'd rather you save your skills and energy for that."

"With all due-"

"This conversation is _over, _Private. I don't care if you have a special bullet that'll kill our target and his men without touching anyone else. I need you more _later_. Dismissed."

Jon knew when there was nothing more he could do, even if it rankled more than anything else had in his life... ever. He growled out a "Yes, sir" before leaving the Corporal's office.

The walk back along the grounds to his quarters didn't help, as he was walking past many soldiers who were preparing themselves and their PMDs for the raid that was being planned on the local Alliance base. They planned to kill the _General_ of the enemy forces. Why would they need a sniper any time more than _now_?

But it was not his choice. The Corporal _did_ generally know what he was doing, as reluctant as Jon was to admit it, he had to. The Corporal had saved his life more than once in the past few weeks of insurgency. When things didn't make sense to a Private, they often simply had to do with things that the Private did not and did not need to know. It didn't change the fact that it _rankled_ more than any other order he had ever followed.

But he followed his orders. They saved his life many times.

He hadn't really expected it to save his life this time, but the Corporal had earned at least that much respect from him during this campaign.

Jon barely managed not to knock the door off of its hinges when he got back to his barracks. There were still a few soldiers bustling around and doing one thing or another around the place to get ready for the raid, but they left through the opening that Jon had created when he entered, and the door shut behind him to lock out the sounds of soldiers preparing for battle.

Leaving just one guy on a bunk.

"Yo, Snipe." The soldier said from his position on his own top bunk. "I figured you would be getting ready like the other lucky ones.

Jon managed a wry smile. "I ain't one of the lucky ones this time, Bo."

"Oh, such a shame, Snipe," Bo said. "Guess we're stuck on guard duty together, then."

"Seems so," Jon confirmed, climbing up onto his own top bunk that was adjacent to the other man's. "Hand over the assignment list."

"You're not on there, you know," Bo reminded him as he handed the travel-screen over. "I checked already. I was hoping we'd get a shift together so that we'd at least have someone intelligent to talk to on the wall."

"You and me both, Bo," Jon said absently. "They'll change in a moment to reflect that I'm here; even when ordered to rest, there's no way they wouldn't use me in my awake hours to let others sleep for the night shifts... ah!" The screen in front of him updated, moving some names around. "Look, I made it. South wall, second daylight and north wall at dawn."

"Darn," Bo said. "I'm dusk on the south wall, so I'm relieving you. And you have a good shift set, you don't actually have to change your sleep schedule for it."

"Well, Corp did tell me that he wanted me for something for tomorrow, so he probably made sure I was placed on shifts that would allow my sleep schedule to be precisely what he wants it to be."

"You sound bitter," Bo told him. "Don't let me stop you from venting."

Jon shook his head. "I'm not interested in venting, I'm interested in killing those bastards who are trying to take away our ability to govern ourselves."

"Aren't we all?" Bo chuckled before he jumped down. "I should shower before my current shift."

Jon felt his brows rise. "You have a strange shift here?"

Bo grinned. "I have first daylight. Those bozos are already late for their 'dawn' departure time, while I'm getting ready early - having a good shower and a good meal before I have to be on the wall is divine."

Jon nodded. "Be watchful, Bo."

"Rest well, Jon."

Of course, he didn't.

Second Daylight couldn't come fast enough, but no matter what Jon did, he couldn't take a nap. He tried heading over to the shooting range, but they turned him away, telling him that he was supposed to only exert himself during his watch, and then only if he had some action he had to take to protect the base. Corp had apparently stayed a step ahead of him and made sure that he followed the order to the _letter_. Did he have to do it in such a way that prevented him from getting any shut-eye that he had lost to get up before Dawn shift to argue with the Corporal?

Eventually, noon came, and with it first lunch, after which Jon headed out to the South wall, where he relieved one of the soldiers already there, who saluted him as he saluted to indicate he was ready to take the rounds. Jon stalked the side of the wall, pacing efficiently back and forth, while keeping his eyes out toward the horizon, looking for any sort of difference in the landscape. Fort Greger was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by grasslands as far as the eye could see. It was only held in the past due to marauders attempting to enter the country to the east's lands from the west without having to deal with the primary guards, who were stationed along the primary roads.

It was perfect for the secret base of the Resistance against the Malanian Alliance. They were pretending that they were simply a detachment of the military of the country that actually owned the fort. The country in question had been about to abandon the place, and some members of the Resistance arranged for the Resistance soldiers to get the proper uniform of the country for holding the fort and made it look like they had never left. Thus, Jon looked like he was armed with a simple rifle with a bayonet that was slung over one shoulder, rather than the PMD that was in its storage form posing as his belt buckle.

But of course, the only thing that happened on Jon's shift was the annoying bastard who happened to be his partner for the shift falling off the wall backwards. Jon sighed when it happened, as the Recruit had been famous for this particular stunt in the three days that he'd been a part of the movement. Jon had simply opened a channel of communication to the main hub that he'd fallen off again, and continued his own rounds. His eyes were for finding the enemy, not for making sure the Recruit hadn't broken his own fool neck.

The one blessing was that eventually, it ended. Bo appeared on the stairs suddenly, saluting to Jon. "Anything I need to know?"

"Jacob fell off again."

Bo barked a laugh. "I shoulda figured. I'm glad it was you that was with him, and you'd ignore it and call someone else to take care of that fool. Get some sleep, Snipe."

Jon saluted back, indicating that the shift had passed into Bo's hands and left the wall to go back to his bunk. Well, he did hit the mess hall first, then showered to get all the pollen off of him (it was the time of year that the grass pollen made everything yellow if it wasn't cleaned often enough). Then he laid down in his bed. As he hadn't done much 'heavy lifting' that day, he wasn't all that tired when he laid down. It was going to be a long night, he could tell. Particularly with Haar snoring all the way at the other end of the barracks. Without many other soldiers in the room sleeping, it was impossible to sleep against that sound. Jon closed his eyes and tried anyway, only to snap them back open.

Why weren't the soldiers who went on the mission with the Corporal back yet?

As with that realization, the chances of making it to sleep went from 1% to 0%, Jon sat up on his bed. Haar's snoring (plus occasional snorting) was the only thing that he could hear. That was also worrisome. There was a guard station only a few feet away. The constant footsteps back and forth along the top of the keep were something that he had heard forever... but its absence, once noticed, was quite conspicuous.

Suddenly, Jon heard the flumpf of a body falling onto the soft ground that the fort had been built on. Jon immediately pulled out the storage form of his PMD. "Mil, silent mode startup," he whispered. Quickly his PMD attained rifle form, though not nearly as quickly as if he had done the set up the showy way.

Sliding off the bed onto the floor without a sound, Jon stalked to the door of the barracks, which he was about to crack open in order to determine what was going on when he heard footsteps approaching the building. He stole a glance through the peephole to see three dark figures approaching the barrack stealthily. Jon grinned to himself. Not stealthy enough.

"Spread cartridges," he whispered. What he asked for appeared in his hand, and he loaded three into the chamber of his PMD, and then positioned himself.

The instant the door opened, "_Shotgun_."

The three figures were too surprised to react before they had been shot full of magical slugs, and had fallen in a bloody mess on the ground. The only sounds made were two pops from the two shots Jon fired and the three flumpfs that indicated the bodies falling to the soft grass outside. Now able to look out without moving the door, Jon noticed that there were a few other groups like the one he had just dispatched heading into each of the barracks that surrounded the central hub. But only a pair of figures noticed him. A short and tall figure respectively, the light was such that Jon couldn't see the faces of either, but the gesture that the taller one made in his direction was not one that was all that... heartening.

Especially when it came at the same time that Jon realized what was going on.

The smaller of the two figures looked in his direction, and because of the movement of a light above, Jon was able to see that it was a girl, probably eighteen or slightly younger, with the most chilling neutral look he had ever seen. She sprang into action immediately, charging straight at him.

Well, he had one more spread shot in Mil, so he aimed. As long as only one or two people noticed him at any one time, he had a chance of getting out of this alive, but the instant he announced himself with a large incantation, he was dead. He had to get past these two before he could attempt to get to a place where he get to the escape tunnel. Assuming, of course, that the enemy hadn't already figured out where it was. "_Shotgun_," he said quietly again once the girl, who was approaching him far faster than he thought possible, was within range. The blast came out of his PMD with the same 'pop' it had before.

And the girl jumped in an arc and tumble that was incredibly impressive. Jon found himself gaping as she dodged all but one of the tiny pellets. The one she could not dodge struck something on her wrist, which shattered on impact. The girl landed, her forward momentum completely arrested, and she looked around in confusion. The large figure, who had been approaching at a more stately pace, broke into a run and raised what was obviously his own PMD and fired a shot from it by swinging the staff across his body. A blue line of power rocketed toward Jon, who dove to one side, rolling up and asking Mil for more cartridges so that he could continue to fire silently. But the large figure wasn't going to be giving him that break.

The next blue line of power was coming straight at his torso, and being half-prone, he couldn't move enough for the power to miss him completely. Mil's shields weren't all that good, but even so, he brought his rifle PMD up in order to try and survive the shot. All hope left him as his own white barrier sprung up in front of him as a feeble defense against electric blue that was going to cut him in half.

That was when he woke up.

It took him a moment to recognize where he was, like always, but he was on the _Silver Blur_, in his own quarters. They were waiting for the magical phenomena to happen again on this world that they were nearby, many DUs away from Empire Space.

He always woke up then. The worst night of his life, and the only reason he was still alive was never part of the dream. Just the feeling of impending death.

Feeling incredibly sweaty for having been laying in his own bunk, Jon went over to the sink and doused his head with cold water. Once he had toweled the big droplets off, he went over and climbed the ladder up to the main hallway.

As he expected, Naomi was standing there waiting for him with her head tilted to one side. As _she_ probably expected by now, he said, "Thank you again."

"You saved me," was her reply. As he had expected. Jon let his mind drift back to that moment.

Right before blue struck white, the small girl had interposed herself between the two fighters with another acrobatic jump that landed her with her forearm up to take the hit from the electric blue current that flowed from the larger figure.

"You must obey me!" The man said, who apparently knew that the single hit from his powerful staff-canon wasn't going to be enough to fell Jon's sudden savior. "You are contracted to obey me!"

"You forced me," the girl said in a dead voice. "You are the one that made me do the things I..." she twitched violently, but remained in the crouched position that allowed her to block any part of Jon easily. "The things that I..." another twitch. "You are not my friend."

"I am your _Master!_"

"No."

And a deep purple - almost black - ray came out from her suddenly extended palm, straight at the man who immediately brought up a blue shield. It wasn't enough, as the impact of the ray sent him flying back into one of the buildings. The girl turned around to face Jon. "Can you help me?"

Jon didn't think he could trust his voice, but he vocalized his thought well enough. "As long as it involves getting out of here."

The girl nodded.

"Let's jet."

Back on the _Silver Blur_, Jon looked down at Naomi, who had been the most invaluable friend and confidant he ever had, from the worst moment of his life on. She had been instrumental in their escape, and Jon knew that she would not have escaped without his knowledge of the tunnel, which, thankfully, had not been discovered.

That had been the end of the Resistance. It had been the end of many lives. Having gone back to the fort later to help the local government clean it up and shut it down as they had intended to in the first place, Jon knew where Bo had fallen, had cried over his eventual grave. It had been the end of the dream of his home world of Itial being free of the Empire's control.

But it also had been the beginning of what Jon liked to call a friendship, though sometimes he was less sure it was a friendship than others, Naomi had been by his side ever since, helping him figure out things about the Empire and looking for clues of others of her clan that were enslaved. It was part of the reason why the _Silver Blur_ stalked the edges of the Empire; they both knew that Naomi had been used to squash one rebellion, why not more?

"Are you all right?" Naomi asked him quietly.

Jon shook his head. "I have a bad feeling about this mission; I think that's why I had the dream again."

Naomi nodded. There was a beat of silence between them before Jon shuddered at her response.

"I do too."


	7. Interference

**Chapter 7: Interference**

"Captain! I've got a signal!" Riley called out, her pigtails bouncing along with her excited form.

"Send it down to the Engine Room as well as the Com Room," Jon told her as he rose out of his seat on the bridge. "I'll go down to the Com Room, so that I can pretend I know what he and Naomi are doing to them."

Riley giggled. "Sure, Captain." She pressed a button. "Paul? You want a signal?"

"_Do I?_" Exaggerated excitement was certainly something that Paul would use. "_Gimme, gimme, gimme!_" Of course, he wasn't exaggerating all that much.

Riley had flicked a few switches to send the signal down to the engine room in addition to the Com Room, where Naomi was probably already analyzing the data as Jon exited the bridge and headed down to the Com Room halfway to the back of the ship. He didn't hurry, as Naomi and Paul between them would be much more effective if he didn't try to manage their efforts. They knew how to get the most out of given images, Naomi simply because she was so smart, and Paul because he loved working with signals and magical devices. Jon once again mentally congratulated himself on assembling such a crew.

When he arrived in the Com Room, Naomi had already opened at least fourteen displays (as that's how far Jon counted before giving up on counting them all), and some were closing to make room for new ones after only moments, while others, namely three along the top, were open the whole time and providing a little map of the signal. Not that Jon could make heads nor tails of it.

"_Naomi, make sure the higher frequencies are turned down, I think most of that's just resonant noise and it's blocking out the trunk of the signal._" Jon was happy to hear Paul's voice on the com down here with such a substantial observation. That always meant that Paul possibly knew something about the signal he was seeing, and considering the quickly narrowed locational data that Naomi was now displaying on the screens, Jon was even more sure that they were going to get a picture of the perpetrator this time. Of course, the location-displays were the only ones that Jon could make hide or hair of, so those were the ones that he watched the most.

"_I'm getting good location specs_," Paul's voice was excited. "_Are you getting any good visuals of the location?_"

"No," was Naomi's response. "Interference."

This time Paul sounded surprised, which halted Jon's optimism about the process. "_The magical signal is enough that it prevents visual sensory input? Wow, I was thinking that it wasn't so concentrated as that, because of the lack of remaining residue, but apparently it's dense enough that we can't pierce it. Have you tried a drill probe?_"

"Can't risk alerting the subject," Naomi said.

Paul sighed. "_Right. I guess we'll have to do without visual data until the event's over. I thought it would be easier than this… Anyway. Any luck on seeing a recognized pattern?_"

"No."

"_Neither here. I was thinking about crafting, but if it's crafting, it's not making any MD that I've heard of, Personal or otherwise_."

"Not enough information."

"_Right. We can get a picture of the location soon after the event's over," _Paul said._ "We can only hope that the person doing the event hangs around that long_."

Jon walked over to the teleporter control panel. "Feed me the coordinates of the nearest location we can see to the actual event," he told Naomi, and Paul by proxy.

"_It's several miles away, Captain. And without accurate spotting, it's not safe to try to teleport any closer right now_."

Jon growled. "I can fly there."

"_Only Wendy has the speed that might get there in time, as we're probably nearing the end of the event_," Paul pointed out. "_And she'd probably get struck by something that's being emitted without the opportunity to dodge it, considering the kind of magical cloud that she'd have to fly through. It's just not safe while the event is occurring_."

Jon slammed his fist on the table, immediately regretting it when it began to throb. "All right. Just be ready to feed coordinates, I'm going in as soon as we can get a safe teleport to a nearby location. Without revealing the tech to the locals. I want that as soon as physically possible, alright?"

Naomi nodded. "I'm coming with you."

Jon nodded back. "I know."

"_The event's stopped, Naomi._"

"Can't get through."

"_The cloud's still there?_"

Naomi flicked a few more buttons and was rapidly switching views, trying to see through the static. The images were just showing red clouds, occasionally with yellow specks poking through the solid red. Jon knew that the red indicated that there was a large enough concentration of magical energy in one place that prevented viewing anything that was obtained by the visual feed. Yellow was less dangerous to the equipment but almost as opaque. Below yellow there was also blue, which meant that it was above recommended levels, but it was translucent and the image could be seen. Naomi was having no luck, until suddenly she was. The yellow was taking over the red, then the yellow started fading to see-through blue.

The shots were now showing a smaller settlement, probably referred to as a town, with fewer cars on the roads and more space just outside the settled area. The buildings were older, some even falling into disrepair, but most were tended to well, even if the age showed in some ways. There were many more people walking along the streets than in vehicles here, some walking with a purpose, but most of the citizens would at least slow to greet passersby. Some even stopped for conversations that ended both participants' forward motion completely. As the blue faded out completely, the scene didn't change much, though Jon started to think there was something strange about the people that were showing up in different shots.

Jon squinted at a particular screen that Naomi had opened with just one person visible just outside the alley. "The coordinates for inside the alley, Naomi." He flicked the switch that would make all of the speakers throughout the ship broadcast his message. "Naomi and I are headed on-world. All of you are to follow Paul's instructions as to analyzing the pictures we were able to get from the aftermath." By the time he was done relaying these instructions, Naomi had programmed in the proper coordinates and had stepped beyond him onto the pad. The instant he joined her (after flicking off the broadcast from the Com Room), the two disappeared.

When they rematerialized at the target location, Jon and Naomi immediately took on a stately gait out of the alleyway that they had appeared in. The man that Jon had spotted outside was still standing there when they exited, still looking a little lost and confused. "Excuse me," Jon said as jovially as he could muster, though his head was pounding with his increased pulse, "but you look a little staggered. Is there anything I can help you with?"

"No... no... I'm all right," the man said, somewhat uncertainly. "I just don't know precisely what I was off to do. I mean, I know it was to go buy something, but what and from where? I swear I knew it a moment ago..."

Jon raised his eyebrows. "Well, good luck with that, sir, I'm glad you're all right." Then he waved and received a more than half-hearted wave in return. Once Naomi and Jon were headed away from the man, they exchanged looks.

The next person they met on the street was looking similarly lost. A similar conversation was struck up by Jon.

"Excuse me, are you all right?"

"Yes, yes, thank you... I'm just... I think I need to go home now... though I wish I remembered why. Oh well, I imagine Mary will tell me if there's anything else I need to get done today when I get there." And the man was off on his own route.

There was the obvious conclusion to draw, but Jon thought it couldn't be that simple.

The next encounter the pair had was with a couple of women who had stopped to chat with one another. They both were chatting amicably, apparently unaffected, if the obvious choice was correct. Jon tipped his hat as the passed, and both women smiled at him before continuing with their conversation. Maybe it was only men who were affected by the event?

Immediately, Jon spotted a woman who clearly had no idea what she was doing standing on the sidewalk, attempting to determine which direction she should go.

Well, that certainly shot down that idea.

"Any word?" Jon said quietly after pressing lightly on his inactive PMD.

"_No_," came the soft response. "_The scene seems rather clean. No building or structure seems damaged at all, and no one person sticks out of the crowd. I don't think we are gonna get him this time._"

Jon sighed. "Keep looking for a little while. Naomi and I will-" he cut himself off just as he was getting close enough to another person that might be able to tell that he was seemingly talking to himself... though he was on some sort of device that he was holding to his ear and clearly having his own conversation.

"Yeah, and I went all the way downtown, too!" the young man told the device. There was no audible response for Jon, but apparently the man heard something. "So you can tell me what we need? Excellent. Go check in the fridge for me. I vaguely remember you telling me that we were out of milk..."

Once it was hard to listen in on half of the young man's conversation, Jon continued. "We'll continue looking around here and see if we can't get some sort of clue as to what went on down here."

"_Aye-aye, Captain_."

"By the way, what's the magical saturation at right now?"

"_Very low and falling._"

That's what he'd figured. "Thanks. Stay sharp; it might be the smallest clue that lets us in on this one."

"_Aye-aye._"

He pressed his PMD again, this time turning off the connection back to the ship. "How far are we away from the rough center of the blast, Naomi?"

"Six hundred meters," she said, pointing down the small street that they were just passing. Jon immediately turned to head down that street, Naomi right on his heels, they nearly bumped into a man that was walking the other way.

"Terribly sorry," the man and Jon said simultaneously before both tipping their hats at each other (the other man had a top hat on) and continuing on their way.

Naomi stopped for a second, though it took Jon more than that to notice that she had fallen a little behind and then caught back up.

"What did you notice?"

"An anomaly passed through the town. I could not identify it."

Jon nodded. "Remember to look for that anomaly shortly after the next event, then."

He received a nod. Then Naomi stopped at the corner that seemed to be adjacent to a busy intersection. There had been a crash in the center of the roadway, with four cars involved. Lots of people seemed to be milling around, but nobody seemed to be rushing around as if someone was in trouble. In fact, none of the vehicles really looked all that bad. A few were heavily dented in the back, and one in particular had taken a nasty hit on the nose, but it seemed like the passenger areas in all of them were untouched, and all of the participants in the crash were standing up and walking around, a good portion of whom were on the same devices that the young man had been on.

"Is it here?" Jon asked his partner quietly.

"Yes. Here." She tapped the sidewalk with a foot.

Jon looked around, studying the intersection. It had some sort of traffic signal, which of course was being completely ignored as it was impossible to get through the intersection with the four cars preventing any significant traffic from passing by. The buildings on each corner were two or three stories high. One was a bakery, where a rotund man with a white apron was standing outside looking at all the commotion. The other three seemed to be offices; they had writing on them that Jon could not read, so he was only guessing. He noticed that a woman in another white apron had come out with a basket of rolls and was heading for the center of the intersection.

There was nothing notable about the place, other than the crash, and even that only temporarily. It looked like the run of the mill intersection.

"I don't think we're going to find anything of interest here, Naomi."

Naomi nodded, though she seemed to be very interested in the ground.

"Are you finding anything interesting down there?"

Naomi shook her head as she stood up. "A dead end."

"Great."

Their first real chance and finding something about the events, and they hadn't found any real answers, only more questions. Had whatever it was affected the whole town? A select number of people? What had it done to them? The only real clue that they had was the fact that some people had become slightly forgetful immediately after the event, but even that seemed to be spread out and so it wasn't nearly as trustworthy a fact as Jon would have liked it to be. "Let's head back to the ship, then, and take a look at all of the data we were able to collect. Hopefully we can get something more from all of that."

Naomi nodded, and the two of them walked up the street, starting to look for a location that they could teleport out. Jon hoped that this wasn't a sign of how the search was going to go.


	8. Time for a Rest

**Chapter 8: Time For a Rest**

"I have a pretty good idea as to the location where the event occurred," Shari announced into the silence after one of the other bridge analysts loudly exclaimed that the signal was suddenly gone; faster than the previous time.

"Not a perfect one?" the Admiral asked into the newly renewed hush as everyone on the bridge was looking at the Enforcer-Analyst.

Shari shook her head. "I think we're still too far out in order to determine a perfect location, but I can narrow it down to a single landmass. A rough 125 kilometer radius circle is what I can guarantee, though I'm pretty sure it's within a particular 90 kilometer circle within that."

The Admiral raised his eyebrows. "Well, that does make it so that we can figure out where we should settle for easiest teleports when we reach range. Deliver a report on it in... oh, ten hours. You deserve a little rest after staying alert for so long at once. Get some sleep."

"Yes, sir," Shari saluted the Admiral, but there was one thing that she had to do before she would let herself lie down. She picked up her things from the console, which was covered with papers, sketches and not a few screens that she had to close before she could close down her station. She also picked up the empty coffee cup that she had nursed for over twenty-four hours now, and took it with her when she left the bridge. She dropped the coffee cup off in the kitchen, which wasn't all that far from the bridge, and continued on her walk to the aft, where her one remaining task was.

She used the walk to organize her papers. On the one that she looked at while she shuffled them around so that they all pointed the same direction, she had sketched a particular pattern that the signal had taken when she had narrowed down the signal to just the part she wanted. Once she had eliminated all of the excess 'noise' from the signal, she noticed quite a few small jumps and starts of the main pattern... but none of it had been in spell patterns that she had seen before. It was _very_ different. Different enough that she was still stumped as to what kind of thing the phenomenon was at least attempting to accomplish. It was shaky enough that she thought that the user had not used whatever it was entirely properly. It was all evidence for the world to have just recently discovered magical output.

But the sheer volume of magical power that was being channeled into the phenomena was evidence in the other direction: a newly magically-capable world would be completely unable to generate that much magic so quickly in the process, especially considering that even as close as the _Rising Star_ was, they still hadn't found any other magical signals coming from 687. Only the phenomenon, and that only every few days. All the rest of the magical signals were the kind of thing one could see on an abandoned world that happened to have a lot of ambient magic in the air, and therefore meant nothing. Especially at this distance.

She walked into the training area to find the objects of her final task locked in combat. Teana was trying to keep distance between herself and Fate, but was failing miserably, having to keep one of her Devices in Dagger form in order to parry away strikes from Fate's Riot form. Shari watched as Fate, who looked like she hadn't even worked up a sweat, suddenly and efficiently swung her off-hand blade up and against Teana's dagger and dislodging the device from her hand and bringing the strong side blade around, stopping as it singed the hair on Teana's neck.

"Where did you make your mistake?" Fate asked, without moving a muscle.

"When I turned my back on you, allowing you to get too close for me to hold off," came Teana's immediate answer.

"Very good," Fate said, finally disengaging, allowing Teana to indulge in the sigh that she'd been holding in. "No fancy moves when you're facing an opponent who's faster than you and knows it. If you let them get the advantage even once, a sufficiently fast opponent will never let you have the initiative again." She turned her head to smile at the newcomer to the room. "It seems you are saved by a visitor in our midst, though, and you can have a short break."

Shari smiled at her two colleagues. "I was able to narrow down the signal to a particular part of the world, though I still have no idea what it is they're trying to do with it."

Fate frowned. "You've never seen the pattern before?" Fate barely waited for Shari's nod. "That's... frustrating."

Shari nodded again. "If I weren't so tired, I'd probably be very amusingly frustrated right now. Instead, I feel very loopy."

Fate smiled at her longtime friend. "I think you should go to sleep, then. Did you get ordered to rest and come over here to tell us of your progress again?"

Shari looked down her shoes. "I- I'm sorry..."

Fate put her hands on her hips. "You need to take better care of yourself, Shari. Off to bed with you." She glanced over at Teana, who was still breathing hard from the workout. "You too, Teana. I think we all should rest. How far out are we now, anyway?"

"Two days and change," Shari said.

"Perfect," Fate replied. "We all should rest well for the next forty-eight hours, because we're going to have to all be on alert when we get to 687. We don't know what we'll find, the kinds of people we'll meet, whether we'll be dealing with hostile units... We don't know anything about the situation that we'll find ourselves in when we arrive, so we should be well-rested." She pointed at Teana. "No working out on your own. If you're bored, you can take a look at some of the materials for your exam."

It was a sign as to how tired Teana was that she merely nodded in response.

Fate then ushered the other two out of the room, intent on getting them both to bed.

Though, she did have another thing that she wanted to take care of herself.

Fate's room was sparse on the ship, as it always was, though it had all she needed. Her latest gift from her god-daughter. A few photos (one of her old family, one of her new, and one of her newest). And of course, a pillow that she brought with her that smelled of Nanoha for up to a week and a half. Otherwise, it was very clinical. The neutral color didn't help this image at all.

After showering and getting into more comfortable clothes so that she would be the most relaxed for this, the most important part of her week, she pulled out Bardiche, who didn't even need a vocal command to know what Fate wanted, immediately establishing a connection.

It didn't take long for it to go through, though the delay between when Fate spoke and her voice being broadcast on the other side would be substantial at this distance. The image of Nanoha's living room came up, only to be instantly blocked by a pair of mismatched eyes. "Fate-mama!" Vivio cried happily at Fate's appearance.

Fate smiled. "Hello, Vivio. Has it been a good week?"

"Mmhmm!" the little one nodded emphatically. "Yuuno-papa had me help him organize yesterday! It was cool being in the same place as all of the books... Nanoha-mama said that I could even check one out!"

"That _is_ cool," Fate agreed, holding back her laughter at the enthusiasm of her young goddaughter.

"Mou, Fate-chan," came a voice from out of frame, but the familiar brown head and blue eyes appeared next to the blonde one shortly. "You had to call while I was busy in the kitchen!"

"What's for dinner tonight?" Fate asked.

"Breaded chicken with a cheese sauce, and Brussels sprouts on the side," Nanoha informed her, which sent Vivio immediately into a 'yuck' face. Nanoha noticed this and poked her gently in the side, which made the girl giggle. "If Vivio eats all of her Brussels sprouts, then she can have ice cream for dessert." This revelation, of course, had Vivio's face light up again. Fate was finding that it was impossible to stop smiling at the cute picture mother and daughter made.

"Sounds good. I wish I could join you."

"What did _you_ have for dinner?" Vivio asked.

"Some sort of pork. It was pretty good, but I always wish I could have what Nanoha-mama is making instead. Even the Brussels sprouts." She had said it just for the reaction out of the little girl, and she obliged. Fate gave in to a giggle. "And the ice cream too, of course."

"Mmm!"

"Have you found out when you'll be back on Mid yet, Fate-chan?"

"No, not yet. We still don't know enough about what the success criteria will be," Fate told her.

Nanoha sighed. "Oh well." Vivio started to fidget. "You look tired, Fate-chan."

"I am," Fate told both of them. "I was just going through a training session with Teana."

"How is she doing?"Nanoha asked curiously.

"She's learning a lot and quickly. She's still a little impatient, but I think she's really starting to think like an Enforcer. With a little more experience she'll probably be ready for the final upgrade that I can give her."

"Then it's just on her own, right?"

Fate nodded. "Though I think I'll be keeping her around as my partner, if she doesn't want to move on to someone else for the experience. Her abilities have been good support for me in the few fights we've gotten in. The more I've worked with her the more I've agreed with you about your original assessment of her potential. And I think we're actually seeing it come out fully now."

Nanoha nodded. "That's good. I should let you go, since you're tired, and our dinner is almost ready. Vivio?"

"Bye, Fate-mama!"

"Goodbye, Vivio," Fate said, unable to refrain from smiling widely at the energetic little girl. "And goodbye, Nanoha."

"Be careful, Fate-chan."

"I will." Then, with the connection cut off, Fate was free to go to sleep.


	9. Contact

**Chapter 9: Contact**

The freakiest way to wake up, and this was something that Jon had known for a while now, was to have Naomi stand next to your bed and say your name in as loud a voice as she ever mustered. If there was any time that he was trying to stop jumping out of his skin during, it was then.

This time was no exception.

He _did_ wish that he had stopped himself from grabbing the covers and pulling them up to his chin while he stared at his disturber. But, of course, he hadn't. He had also screamed like a little girl, and it was small comfort that Naomi wouldn't ever tell anyone how he reacted to this treatment.

"An event," she told him, before quickly and limberly clambering up the ladder to the main hallway of the _Silver Blur_. This gave Jon a moment to actually breathe in. That is, until he realized what Naomi's message had meant, which sent him into a fit of coughing before he sprang up out of the bed and dressed before heading over to the Com Room.

When he got there, he found Naomi and Paul going over the screens, attempting to pierce the magical cloud that had settled around whatever place it was that was 'being struck' this time. Naomi turned to him upon his entrance. "There is a safe place to insert ourselves, if being in the event ourselves is safe."

There was really no other option considering how the other two events had gone before and after they waited for the red cloud to dissipate and guarantee safe passage through the area. "We go in," Jon said. "How hard would it be to grab us back out before the event ended?"

"I will send Paul coordinates," Naomi told him.

Paul nodded. "As long as she's spotting for me, I can manually override and make sure I get you guys back in a pinch."

"So we'd only really need to make sure that we were keeping ourselves safe from the effects of the event," Jon said aloud. "Alright. I'm going in with Naomi _now_, and we'll head to the center as quickly as possible. Is the center close by the safe place that you found?"

"Under 400 meters," Naomi replied.

Jon sighed. That was further than he had wanted it to be, but closer than he had been afraid of. "Alright. We'll hurry to the location, then. Code phrase for pullout is 'Blur out'."

"Got it," Paul told him. Then he hit a bunch of keys, which had the visual effect of lighting up the teleport pad. "Go ahead; I'll get you down there as soon as you're on the pad."

Jon checked to make sure that his inactive PMD was on his belt like it should be (it was), then he headed over to the pad, followed by his first mate. Paul waved momentarily, then continued with his searching.

After blinking, Jon found himself huddled in the corner of an abandoned building's porch. Naomi's hand immediately obscured his vision, calling up one of her signature silver shields. "I think I can block the event," she said, shakily. Doing whatever she was doing was apparently taxing her.

"Are you alright?"

"I will be fine."

Jon looked at her dubiously for a moment, then relented. "Fine. But if you feel like your assessment of that changes at any time, get us out of here. I can't have you hurting yourself for this."

"Understood."

He wasn't going to be getting any more out of her about this, so he didn't try, instead looking around her hand in the direction that the event was probably coming from. As best that he could measure 400 meters was an intersection, at which several people were milling about.

Well, that was certainly helpful.

"Can you move and keep the defenses up? Also, can you not have your hand directly in front of my face and keep the defenses up?"

Without a word, Naomi took her hand down from his eyes and held a larger, though flickeringly visible, shield in front of them. Once she was settled, she said. "We can travel. I cannot make my shield invisible."

Jon touched her gently on the shoulder, casting a spell that was as easy for him as breathing. Her shield flickered out of visibility. "Mmf," he said, making sure of his handiwork. "I think that'll work."

He received a nod in reply. All set to go, the pair left the porch and got down onto the street, where people were going about their business, though every few seconds most of them jerked and shook their heads. Probably some sort of effect of the event that was coming from the intersection that was now 300 meters in front of them. While Naomi looked sort of strange with her hands splayed out in front of her, her proximity to another person seemed to deflect the stares. Jon didn't have time to wonder about it then, but he filed the thought for later: why weren't they continuing to stare? Without knowledge of magical barriers (and the fact that they can sometimes be invisible), she looked quite strange with her body in that position while she walked along the sidewalk.

As they approached the halfway point of the short trek, Jon was starting to make out faces of the people that were at the intersection that Naomi's directions had indicated. Quite a few people were milling about there... as Jon watched, one particular person was walking in perfect circles (though small ones) at the corner opposite the one that Jon and Naomi would arrive at. He didn't seem to be noticing the fact that he was doing it (or maybe he was doing it on purpose). There were other instances of unexplained behavior. There was a woman pacing on the corner that Naomi and Jon were approaching. She executed a snap turn walked out of sight behind the building that was on the corner, then about a second or two later she was back in vision for a few steps before executing the next snap turn. Jon couldn't read her face from the distance.

Jon, out of reflex more than anything else, looked down at his first mate, whose face didn't give him any sort of indication as to what she thought about this whole event. His gaze went back up to the intersection, this time searching on purpose for the people who weren't experiencing bizarre behaviors. It was hard, as the Train-Wreck Principle was working against him, but he was able to identify three people who were just standing in the same spot, looking around at the people around them (in some cases incredulously).

On the corner that was now only 100 meters away, there was a woman whose blonde hair was tied up in a bun above a vividly red cloak. Her head was turning to watch a lot of different people around her, though she was completely ignoring the pacing woman that was directly behind her. She also seemed to be looking for someone in particular and not finding them, now that Jon could see her face somewhat.

On the corner that was across the street straight ahead, was an older gentleman whose head was slowly sweeping across the assembled people. He watched cars in particular as they came across the intersection, though there weren't all that many going by right then, and he was watching all the people with the bizarre actions and sort of flinching away if one seemed to make a movement toward him.

On the opposite corner from the one that Jon and Naomi were about to arrive on, there was a young man in a long black cloak and a black hat. His eyes were flipping between the two other people that were not doing something extremely strange, and his eyes also took in the newcomers to the intersection as he gave a cursory look to the rest of the people that were nearby. His hands and arms were hidden inside the cloak, though it didn't seem like he was doing much with them, or was hiding anything significant underneath. It was a little unnerving how strong his stare was, but Jon held up to it admirably.

"Which one, do you think?" Jon said, quietly enough that neither the pacing woman or the blonde looking at all the strange people could hear his question. Naomi passed her glance over everyone in a swift motion.

"Him," she said, indicating with a nod of her head the young man in the black cloak all the way diagonally across the paved road.

Jon nodded. "I agree." He pressed his PMD gently. "We're at the location," he said, his voice even lower. "Can you hear me?"

There was some white noise in the background, but the reply was audible against the noise (and Mil had tuned it so that only Naomi and Jon could hear it. "_Good enough, anyway_." It was Paul.

"Target A is a young man in a black cloak that comes to his knees and black boots beneath that. I think he's wearing black pants over the boots and under the cloak. He's wearing a black hat. If you find us, he's currently diagonally across the intersection."

"_Got it_," came the reply. "_I hope the event ends soon_."

But that isn't what happened next.

Everything was suddenly washed over with a black-ish aura that slid across the intersection from the older gentleman's corner through the buildings and all. People winked out of visibility when the aura touched them, but a few remained, including Jon and Naomi. Naomi had jumped in front of Jon with a brightly visible shield in front of her, but the aura seemed to ignore it and pass right through it and her and then through Jon, she spun to look at Jon, but he looked unharmed. He was looking above the building where the aura had come from, looking for someone who could have caused. Suddenly visible at the edge of the building was a figure in what was obviously Barrier Clothing. Her stark red hair would have been more noticeable if it hadn't been for the two firearm-formed PMDs she was wielding.

One was pointed right at Naomi.

"Stand down! I am Enforcer Teana Lanster of the TSAB. One of you is performing dangerous magic, and I demand you cease immediately or face consequences! If you stand down now, you will be allowed a trial!" She called her message into the intersection with authority. Authority that Jon had no intention of obeying.

"I can't reach them," Naomi said, pointing to the communications device that Jon had given her. This made Jon cringe. It was a bad thing if communications with the _Silver Blur _were cut off.

Jon pressed himself against the outer wall of the building before saying, "Mil, startup."

"**Startup: Combat Form Initialized**." Jon felt his Barrier Clothing coalesce around him, and he held the familiar weight of Mil's rifle for long and medium range combat in his hands. Naomi was in a ready stance against the wall next to him.

"None of you are going to comply?" the woman calling herself 'Teana' shouted, this time with clear warning in her voice. Jon took a look down the way that the two of them had come, seeing more of the black aura everywhere, but the most disturbing thing was that there was another figure approaching from that side as well. This one's Barrier Clothing was black in the main area but with a white cape/cloak that was wrapped around her. She carried a black pole with a... was that a bardiche on the end? She looked dangerous. More importantly, she was cutting off their easiest escape route.

"Two known additional targets," Jon said under his breath to Naomi. "One I am facing right now, while the other's on the top of that building."

"She's not there."

Jon's head whipped around, and sure enough the woman with the guns akimbo was nowhere in sight. He whipped back to keep his eye on the more immediate threat. "Figures," Jon said. "Abort trying to find the original target; we need to escape to outside this... thing. Is the event occurring still?"

"No."

"Then if we can get out of this thing, we're home free," Jon said. Then the blonde woman who was approaching Jon reached a place where she decided to stop and address them. "You are armed with Devices on an Unadministered world, and using magic in the full view of citizens of said world. You are in violation of TSAB law. Will you come quietly?"

"I don't submit to made-up organizations, generally," Jon said mildly. Though then he was struck by a thought. "We also seem to be outside the borders of your organization... the TS... something?"

The woman with the long blonde hair pointed her PMD at Jon. "The TSAB's authority extends to anywhere that its interests lie."

Funny, he thought to himself. That was precisely the same thing that the Empire thought. If this woman actually was from some organization called the TSAB... this was a whole new can of worms. "I won't be submitting to an organization that I am not a part of; I don't even submit fully to the organization that claims me."

"What organization would that be?"

Jon tried not to make a face, but he probably failed. "The Malainian Alliance. Or the MCAW, the Malainian Confederation of Allied Worlds. How about your... TSAB?"

"The Time-Space Administration Bureau," she replied. "Do you act with the authority of your organization?"

From behind Jon, he heard Naomi quietly. "The other target is chasing Target A. We don't have to worry about her for now."

"In some things, yes," Jon replied to the woman, though he then mumbled, "Pick a direction and give me a signal; I'll follow you." He felt Naomi take the hand that was behind his back and squeeze it once, then twice to indicate she had gotten the message.

"Then I think it would be best if you came with us to our ship..."

"Now's not the best time," Jon said with a wry grin.

"**Aerowing,**" Jon's PMD stated and things went a little crazy for a moment.

Naomi sprang into action exactly three seconds after the plan had been agreed upon, and Jon was hot on her heels. The abrupt departure didn't seem to faze the officer much, who was after them pretty quickly. Flying through the air was a surreal experience, as Jon didn't do it much, but the adrenaline running through his system seemed to be enough for him to handle it well enough this time. He tried not to think about the fact that Naomi was flying without the aid of a PMD.

"Stop!" He heard the voice of the first of the two new arrivals, and looked in time to see a figure clamber onto a roof of a building and fire one of her PMDs at the escaping pair. Though his shields weren't all that good, they were strong enough for him to deflect the incoming missile out of his path and into one of the buildings below (he said an apology to the owners in his head, but he had more pressing matters at that moment).

"How far do we need to go before they can pull us out?" Jon asked Naomi over the wind whipping past them at their high speed.

"We need to get out of this," Naomi said. There was no need for her to specify what she meant.

"**Sonic Move**." Suddenly, the blonde was in front of them, blocking the escape route that they had chosen. Naomi instantly slowed so that Jon caught up with her, then grabbed his wrist and tugged his flight path such that they zoomed past the obstacle with several feet in clearance, continuing a route that Naomi thought would lead them out. At least, Jon hoped so. With Naomi aiding his magical flight, Jon was now much faster, and Naomi could put on the afterburners to attempt to escape. But it still wasn't fast enough for the blonde to not seemingly _teleport_ in front of the pair.

She pointed her PMD at them. "Stop! Really!"

As Naomi pulled a slightly different stunt, which, while the blonde was ready for something like this, she was not ready for precisely what Naomi had in mind, and the twirling pattern got the two past her with only a foot or two to spare beyond the woman's grasping hand, Jon told her, "No offense; I don't trust you."

Suddenly, static broke in from Mil, and Jon looked at it in astonishment before his PMD told him "**Connection found; able to reach the **_**Silver Blur**_." Naomi had plowed through a discolored dark obviously magical wall. They were outside the aura.

"Get me the Com Room!"

"_Captain?_"

"Mil, send our coordinates to Paul! Paul! Get us out of here!"

"_Yes, sir!_" Jon felt the familiar feeling of being grabbed by the magic, and Naomi and he kept the same trajectory and speed as the magic grabbed them. Another black aura was spreading toward them, threatening to cut them off from the ship once again...

But then the next thing he saw was the Com Room, and he and Naomi fell to the floor.

"Captain!" Paul was there to help him up, and Riley was making sure that Naomi was unhurt. "What happened? Why couldn't we get through that... thing? A barrier of some kind?"

Jon sighed as he was helped into a sitting position. "The whole game has changed now. There's another group other than the Alliance that has an interest in the events on this world."


	10. Afterward

**Chapter 10: Afterward**

The barrier hadn't reached them in time. The two figures had winked out of existence (a lot faster than she had quite thought possible). Fate, who wasn't generally prone to cursing, became extremely tempted for a moment to give in to that particular vice. A pair of windows appeared in front of her as both Teana and Shari called her at the same time.

"Fate, did they get away?" Teana asked.

Fate nodded in reply. "Shari, how's your tracking of them?"

"I can't; they don't use a teleportation method I'm familiar with; I'll need to be watching them do that a few more times before I'll be able to hazard a guess as to where they teleported to or from." Shari looked disappointed, and Fate felt a stab of pity even as she felt even more frustrated than she had been previously.

"It's all right," Fate told her longtime partner. "Bardiche, open a..." she had been about to have Bardiche connect to the admiral, but he had beaten her to the punch. "Sir. Both... all three possible targets were able to escape."

"What did you learn about them?" he asked, though his face was set in a hard line.

"About the two that were together... they were interested in the third target, so it's likely that they aren't responsible for the anomaly that sent us here," Fate told him. "They also said that they were members or possibly contractors with another organization that acts similarly to the TSAB. They showed very little respect for TSAB authority, and it seemed to me that they had no good reason to, either, having never heard of the TSAB before."

"We've heard that song and dance before," the admiral pointed out. "What makes you believe that they're telling the truth this time?"

"I believe that they are telling the truth because they mentioned the organization that, in his words, 'claims' him," Fate replied. "He also seemed like he didn't much care for them, but it was in his best interests to play along with them. I recommend we make some sort of peaceful contact with him and his group to try and determine all we can learn about the MCAW, the organization that he had referred to."

The admiral nodded gravely. "I will think on the best plan for approaching that group. And the target that you think is causing the anomaly?"

"Teana was chasing him," Fate said. "What happened, Teana?"

"I..." Teana looked very squeamish as she said this. "I... don't remember. I remember that I went after someone, I think that's who you're talking about, but the next thing I remember I was helping Fate attempt to capture the other two targets."

The admiral looked incredulous. "You don't _remember_?"

Fate stepped in. "Sir, with all due respect, Teana has no reason to lie to us."

The admiral frowned. "I'm aware of that, Harlaown. That doesn't make it any easier to believe that Lanster truly can't remember anything about the chase that she had alone."

Fate turned her gaze to the window that held her apprentice. "Do you hurt anywhere? Do you have a headache of some kind? If you hit your head hard enough, there might be some slight memory loss... you know what, no matter how you feel, you should head to the medical bay right now, and get yourself checked out."

"But... yeah... yeah, you're probably right," Teana said reluctantly. "I'll head to the medical bay now." Her window flickered out of existence.

Fate turned back to looking at Shari and the admiral. "That's a disturbing development, though there are a lot of possible reasons for the memory loss to be legitimate."

"I do hope that she's alright," Shari put in.

The admiral nodded. "So do we all. We can't afford to lose anyone, much less any B ranks or better. We have too few people who can fight in the first place."

Fate nodded. "We need to take this slow. With the discovery that there is possibly another organization looking in on this event, we can't be too careful about our actions towards either of the other two parties."

"Either of the other two _known_ parties, you mean," the admiral said gravely.

Fate merely nodded. She hoped that the mission wouldn't get any further complicated, but she had a very bad feeling about it all.

* * *

"So what else could go weird?" Ifil asked at the dinner table that night. "There are clearly more powers at work here than we originally thought, and that guy got away again, assuming even you guys had zeroed in on the correct person."

"We have." Naomi was short and to the point as always. She preferred the word 'succinct', though.

"We were pretty sure about the person causing the event," Jon confirmed, "and they had it narrowed down to him and the two of us." He indicated Naomi and himself with a pointed finger. "So, yeah, we're pretty sure we know who he is, but there's no way we'd be able to zero in on him again without the... I think it was the TASB... bothering us again."

Ifil sighed. "So basically it's like we're trying to do a mission under the Alliance's nose again, except we don't even know what the consequences would be if we were caught this time."

"Bingo," Jon told him. "Though this time there's an outside chance of them actually helping us, I doubt it. They probably work the same way with the lies and the distrust of everyone not on their payroll..."

"And even distrust of those who _are_ on their payroll," Wendy muttered darkly.

"So we have to allow for both possibilities," Jon concluded. "If we are able to figure out that they would be more interested in helping us, and us helping them, then that's the best course of action. If we can't do that, then we have to make absolutely sure we don't give them the opportunity to stab us. In the front or the back. We need to keep our defenses up against them at all times, even if we're reasonably sure that they want to help us."

"So really, you don't want to trust them at all," Wendy pointed out.

Jon reluctantly nodded. "Even if it's the best option, I'm going to find it hard to trust any organization that thinks it's the one in authority here. I mean, 'where ever its interests lie'? That's a pretty arrogant statement, even if all this TABS does on non-member worlds is work to stop events such as the one we're seeing here."

"And I can't wait until the Alliance discovers this other organization," Wendy mused. "They would be all friendly and pushy at the same time. I wonder how they'd react."

"Depends on the relative sizes of the two, I think," Ifil said. "And the amount of firepower that each knows about the other. They also seem to be far enough away from each other that getting anyone from one territory to the other would be a hassle and a half. Particularly without really good engines."

"As long as we're not put in the middle of that little dispute," Jon said, "And hopefully we can report back about this new organization and scatter so that they don't try to hire us for a recon mission into the territory of this other organization."

"I think that's thinking a little too positive about them, Captain," Riley said. "They haven't dealt with us without something hidden behind their back or up their sleeve or whatever... ever. They're just not people that we should be going on missions for."

"I know, Riley, I know." Jon sighed. "I wanted to check out this event, and look where it got us. I can only hope that they will give us the money that is promised us when we get back. If not, maybe we should try our luck working on the fringe of this other organization."

"What if they're worse about being honest in their dealings with us?" Paul asked.

"Can't be much worse," Jon said darkly. "I would also welcome the chance to work directly for the Alliance's downfall... if only we can determine that life without the Alliance, even if it includes this other organization, would be a better life."

"I used to say anything would be a better life," Wendy said. "Now I'm not so sure. So we're all going in next time, right?"

"Right," Jon replied with a nod. "With all of us, we hopefully will be able to match power with the two of them. Naomi and I were only good enough to be able to get away, and that probably only because they didn't know the scope of our abilities. If they were to learn too much about us, escaping from that barrier-thing would become near impossible with the speed that the blonde moves at. And if you focus too much on her, Miss Fiery Red might get a free shot at you."

"Right; it seems like we would need all of us to stand a chance against her power?"

Jon nodded. "I'm not quite sure as to how powerful she is, as she didn't end up attacking us, but Naomi says that she felt her power and it was higher than any she had felt since waking up." The whole crew knew that Naomi's 'waking up' meant a slightly different thing than anyone else using the term.

"Do you think that you've felt more powerful people than her before waking up, Naomi?" Wendy asked.

Naomi shrugged in response. Jon answered for her. "She doesn't remember enough about that time in order to give a good enough answer. I wish many things, but mostly I wish she remembered the people who did what they did to her so that we could find them and kill them for their crimes. But instead we've had to sneak around and try to find out the hard way." He turned to Naomi. "It won't stop us that you can't remember anything about them. We'll get them anyway." Naomi nodded to him with a look on her face that no one could read, and then she went back to her dinner and took another bite.

"So are we waiting for another event now?" Ifil asked.

"I'm not sure," Jon said. "I mean, this time it was pretty obvious to the guy that he was being watched and followed. I bet we can afford to try drilling into the magical field no matter how obvious it would be to him or the other organization since both of them know that someone that they did not expect is here and likely to give them trouble. Maybe we can even learn a little more about both of them that way... but this is all operating under the assumption that he follows his old pattern. If I were him, I would change patterns slightly now that I know I have people around who could possibly change my plans by being in the wrong place or doing the wrong thing."

"So we just have to wait and see," Paul said. "I wonder how long we'll be here. We have enough supplies here, and food is easy to gather, but there is a limit to how long we can keep the ship running even if we're not going anywhere."

Jon nodded. "I know there's a time limit of sorts, but I don't think this can be rushed. I think we're basically stuck watching to see what these other two players are going to do next, and to hope that there's not a fourth player waiting in the wings for just the right moment to come out and snatch away our goal from us."

Dinner was silent as the crew processed the new information.

Jon finished second (Naomi always finished first and waited patiently for the next person to finish before she started bussing her dishes and cleaning up), and when he rose, it wasn't long before everyone was up at the sink making sure that everything was taken care of. They all split off to sleep, or in Riley's case, take the first watch on the sensors. Jon didn't really expect anything to happen, as from any point of view there were a lot of things to think about from the events that day. He only hoped that there was enough to think about that the TBSA didn't manage to find their ship and attempt to get an agent on it before the dawn.

Of course, there was no guarantee as to what the sleep/wake cycle of the newcomers was. The target was easy, knowing the towns that he tended to hit, the crew had settled into a pattern that matched his. If the newcomers were really, really new to the area, they could be based on any number of sleep cycles. That was the reason why he didn't call off the watch; the new organization was too much of a wild card at this point. Though... he didn't know what he'd do in the event that they did attack him on his own ship. He hoped the sudden possibility of an 'international incident', now that there was possibly another organization that was on a level with them, would be enough to prevent particularly strong responses from the newcomers. But it was only a hope. If they were anything like the Empire...

Then they would not be able to assume anything about them, other than that they would backstab the crew of the _Silver Blur_ at the first opportunity. With that lovely thought in mind, Jon tried to get some sleep, hoping that Naomi did the same. They would be needing her and her incredible magical strength more and more, it seemed.

* * *

The TSAB was here... the TSAB was here...

The thought was that the TSAB couldn't notice anything out here. But it seemed like he had been wrong about that, at least. Wrong about a few other things too. He had had the feeling that he had been watched for a few of the attempts so far, but this was the first time... this was the first time that he had been confirmed in his feelings about what had been going on around him.

He hoped he had done everything right on the escape... if he had made a single mistake in his timing... he didn't want to think about it. As it was he was going to have to watch his back really closely. If he had screwed up... they'd probably be at his door in a moment. And they didn't seem like the type to not use the door. He went over it in his mind...

The moment that the barrier flew through him was also the moment that his heart stopped for a few seconds. Long enough that he was afraid that it wasn't the intruder that was going to kill him. It was when the woman on the roof said something that he commanded his Device to cease the experiment. He then tried to slip out quietly, but it seemed like the woman could be many places at once. For a moment he thought she was still on the roof of the building across the way, but when he turned to head down the street to find a way out of the barrier with a low-profile, there she was _right in front of him_.

The time for subtlety had ended; he just needed to get out of there. Besides, he had his secret weapon, and if he pulled it off... He spun around and ducked between buildings. "Hey!" he heard from behind him, but her confusion was his advantage. He had put his hat down so that it would be harder to notice his face, though really that wasn't what he was counting on to save him in a pinch. He ran quickly, finding his way through side streets that he had planned on possible escapes a few weeks ago. Man was he glad that he had planned ahead this time. He could thank her for all of her planning when he saw her again.

But then she was in front of him again, this time pointing the pistol device at him. Or was it two of them? Regardless, he was facing immediate danger, and it was time to use his first back-pocket ace. His own Device, which he liked to keep in its holster even when he was using it, came out in a quick smooth motion. He managed to surprise the girl well enough, and he was able to get the original spell – the one that gave him this whole idea in the first place. He fired directly into her face; powering it up far enough that even the small shield that her Autoguard was able to get up in time was absolutely no obstacle.

Her blank look came across her suddenly blank face and he had quickly turned around. She said something quietly behind him, but he was more thinking about getting out of her line of sight, as she would recognize that she was in a barrier soon enough and would start looking for the target that the barrier had been created for in the first place. Unfortunately, he didn't think he was quite fast enough, as she said "Hey!" again, and he distinctly heard her footsteps coming after him.

Well, this time he'd have to up the dosage. Or at least implant a better idea.

Oh, right, he suddenly remembered that he wasn't the only one that was in the intersection when the barrier came though. There were other people that the TSAB agents would probably want to question. Maybe remind her of them?

Perfect. He turned and fired right as she came around the corner, this time focusing more on making the change rather than breaking through the Autoguard. He knew it wouldn't be a perfect switch if her Autoguard was quick enough, but it would be good enough for the escape. The better his timing of the shot... well, he had one opportunity. He waited until just as he spotted her shadow, then fired. It hit her full in the face, and this time the Autoguard seemed to come up afterward. He ducked into the building next to him.

He managed well enough this time, he knew, because he heard the distinct sounds of someone about the size of his adversary climbing up on the walls to make it to the top of the building. Then he heard her shout something at someone else. Perfect. Now he could get out of the barrier with a low profile, like he had wanted to in the first place. With little tiny uses of magic he could tell where the edges of the barrier were. And he knew many ways out; the easy part was getting out quickly.

If only he knew that she had forgotten his face, like he had meant to happen. If only. But there was nothing he could do about that now; he could only make sure that he always kept his guard up. If only... he didn't have to sleep. Then he'd be more assured of not getting caught.

So now he was laying in his bed, trying and yet not trying to go to sleep. It was a weird thing. He was certainly tired. Doing lots of magic in a single day will make a person tired. But he was also extremely alert. He didn't want to get to sleep, but he knew he had to. It was the most confusing feeling ever, and certainly wasn't helping his nerves. Of course, he didn't think his nerves had really been okay since just under a year ago now. It may have been an upgrade on nerves, but nothing was gonna make his sleep any worse. He only slept when he got himself tired out that day. That's how he knew it was time to do another experiment. When he couldn't sleep again. It was like clockwork; it was a helpful way to determine when he was ready.

He didn't think his nerves were ever going to get any worse, but maybe he was wrong. His heart had been beating faster than usual for hours now. He knew that this whole experience was likely to kill him, but now it was just more and more likely that he would find himself dead. Then he wouldn't succeed though... and that was unacceptable. So he took just enough care of himself. Once he was successful... then things are good... and he can let himself die. Then he would be okay. Then everything would be over.

There was a knock on the door, making his eyes snap open. Someone was there. Someone had _found_ him. He was up and with his Device headed to the doorway and looked through the peephole. There was a pair of young men on the other side with white shirts, black slacks and ties. He hadn't ever seen these particular men before... but the bicycles behind them plus the getups told him who they were. He let out a breath, but there was a possibility of it going wrong. So he make a quick decision. "Anamnesis, make it so that they think that... that I was their typical answerer... someone who didn't really think much of them."

"**Certainly, Sir.**"

Then he opened the door.

"Hello there! We're from the chu-"

BAM! Once both of them were struck by the beam, he then closed the door and listened. There was about a minute of silence before, "I think... I think we're not going to get anything out of him."

"Yeah... I think so too." And then the footsteps away. It was good enough for now. And now he was more tired. Tired enough that once he had plopped down on his bed, he fell asleep in only a few minutes, despite his heart-rate and worries. Sleep was needed more.


	11. Allies, Enemies, or Friends

**Chapter 11: Allies, Enemies, or Friends?**

Fate walked onto the bridge with a refreshed and apparently rested Teana beside her. After the medical wing determined that nothing was wrong with her, other than a few scrapes from her propensity to climb during the encounter, she had healed up quite nicely. She still hadn't remembered anything about the chase that she had been led on, as short as it apparently had been, but she seemed to understand that it wasn't her fault, and that it was probably something he had done to her, so she didn't have to worry about having failed at anything.

Though that did open another interesting can of worms.

Shari had shared with Fate the footage of the chase, where they got a half decent shot of the suspect, but it was clear that the man had done something to Teana. Twice. The first time she seemed to have managed to shake it off even though it went right through her shield. While there were things she probably could have done better during the encounter, had the positions been reversed, Fate wasn't sure that she would have done better not knowing that he had such an ability in his arsenal. It gave another wrinkle to this already complicated situation.

The admiral spotted Fate and Teana entering just as Shari got up from her station to go and join them. "Ah, good," he said. "Thank you for coming up so quickly."

Fate saluted. "You said you had some decisions made as to our next moves?"

The admiral nodded. "Yes, I have. We want to have Fineio working on making sure we know when the next anomaly occurs so that we can track the man again, and hopefully not lose him on the teleport this time. While that's going on, we need to figure out a way to reach out peacefully to the other group that's here... in a way that doesn't affect the locals. Some way to get a message to them without knowing where they are, how they think of magic, and without showing an obvious sign to the people of this world that something weird is going on.

"I want both of you, Harlaown and Lanster, to think on it. Any good idea you come up with I would like to hear shortly after you have it. I will also be thinking of ideas and I will float them by the two of you. We need to figure this out quickly, so that they and we, if we have the same goals here, can stop working at cross-purposes."

Fate nodded. "Understood. I have an idea."

"Go ahead."

"We can create a magical anomaly ourselves that does nothing visible; maybe create another Barrier, though a small one, and stand outside it so that they don't feel threatened by being inside of it. If we are in Barrier Jackets but not armed with our devices, then I think we will be trusted in that position a little more. I think that this is the best way to get a conversation with them."

"But what do we talk to them about?" Teana asked. "While we have a couple of suppositions on what they are doing here and a couple assumptions, we don't know all that much about them. What kinds of subjects do we use?"

"The truth, mostly," the admiral said. "The truth as to what our mission is and an offer of helping them if they tell us what their goal is and it is not at odds, as well as a promise to not interfere if they don't do something to the local citizens or interfere with us."

"That seems fair," Teana said quietly.

"That's a good idea, Harlaown," the admiral told the Enforcer. "If we don't come up with something better in the next, say, twelve hours, we'll put it into practice. Keep thinking."

Fate saluted again, joined by the other two a moment later. Then Fate and Teana exited the bridge while Shari went back to her station so that she could continue working on the search for anomalies. Teana spoke the instant that the door was closed behind the pair. "How do you think they will respond?"

"I'm not sure," Fate allowed. "I've dealt with people in a lot of situations, but never in a situation where they represent, even partially, an organization that is comparable with the TSAB. I've seen people represent worlds when they were trying to become administered. I've seen people represent worlds when they were refusing to become administered. I've seen people trying to fight us so that their world would no longer be administered. I've seen many different situations, but this one is a new one." She turned to her partner and smiled. "It's a little strange to think about another interworld organization like that TSAB existing side-by-side with the TSAB without ever really noticing each other."

Teana nodded. "I agree... though I haven't had experience with all of those kinds of people, you had told me a lot of those stories, and Instructor Takamachi had told me some others of your... misadventures?" Fate laughed, and Teana smiled. "I knew already about all those other situations that people could be in, and the ways that they may or may not react to the Enforcer Corps when they came through. But this one is one that I'd never heard of. It's a kind of diplomacy that we're not quite used to."

"That's why we sent a message back to Mid," Fate said, "that we are requesting diplomatic backup because of an encounter with a possible other interworld organization."

"Did you get a response back about that yet?" Teana asked.

"Yes, we have, and they denied our request."

"What?" Teana was flabbergasted. "Why would they deny such a request?"

Fate gave Teana a pitying look. "They always deny requests like this. They're incredibly stingy about the stuff that we get through the normal budget. A diplomat at our request? We're gonna need more than the hunch we have that these people are in fact telling the truth about the organization that they're working for before the brass in the TSAB are going to be giving us anything." Then Fate giggled a little to herself.

"What?" Teana asked. "You can't just laugh like that and not share!"

"Okay," Fate said. "But it's all unofficial, okay?" Teana nodded. "Good. Hayate volunteered to come out here if necessary with her Knights and any soldiers that they thought they could spare."

Teana laughed. "She's a good commander, but she didn't strike me as a diplomat extraordinaire."

"She likes to be where things are happening. She likes to help people... and if we're right about this event being as big as we think it is, this is exactly the kind of thing she'd like to be in the middle of. She has a lot of clout in the TSAB because of the kinds of connections that she's built over the years; hadn't you noticed that Riot Force Six had a lot of very powerful supporters? People from the Belkan Saint Church, people from the Enforcer corps, admirals... while there are still some people who distrust her because of her background, she has gained a lot of respect from a lot of important people. That's diplomacy at its finest."

Teana looked thoughtful. "I hadn't thought of it that way."

"But the brass isn't going to repurpose anyone, much less a good commander who happens to be ranked SS and have several AA or better subordinates that are extremely loyal to her, to something that might still be a false alarm. The forces that the TSAB has to deploy are stretched thin enough as it is, after all." They had reached the training center, but Fate had stopped outside of the room to continue the conversation. "They have defensible reasons, but they're not all that sound, as you know. We're pretty sure about this. We just have to have some sort of confirmation. I wonder how we'll be able to get it."

"Maybe the conversation will help," Teana suggested. "Maybe they could give us something there that would prove that they got it from another sufficiently advanced interworld organization like the TSAB, but not the TSAB."

Fate shook her head. "I have the feeling that it's just not going to be that easy. I think if we're going to get any proof of it, we're going to be in a lot deeper than we are now."

Teana frowned. "How do you think that would happen?"

"I don't know, Teana," Fate said quietly. "I don't know."

* * *

Jon liked having the shift in the Com Room. It was a quiet time that he had to rest that he enjoyed immensely. It meant that he wouldn't be bothered by any of the crew (Naomi saw to it when he was sleeping or doing something that could require all of his attention in an instant, that no one distracted him unduly from his work), and it also meant that he could run over difficult situations in his mind. This was one of those situations, and therefore one of those times.

It wasn't like he'd come up with anything new in the nearly twenty-four hours since the event had taken place. Everything was complicated, what with the STAB people and the target both running around doing who knows what. He hoped that the target was going to take a couple days off so that he could come up with a way to deal with the others in some way. Running away like that worked once, but it probably wasn't going to work again, and it probably wasn't the best way of dealing with them, even if they were anything like the Empire. The _Silver Blur_ had survived quite a while while living within, though barely within, the parameters set by them. Why couldn't they do a similar squeak with these people?

This was promising. He had learned a long time ago to exist within the bounds that they would let him, running operations that he didn't want them to know about under their noses. While he probably hadn't succeeded in keeping all of those operations from the authorities, he had done enough that they were turning a blind eye because of the services he offered them on a regular basis. A trade-off, to be sure, but they occasionally paid him too.

So there was probably a way. Besides, good ol' Horace hadn't given any sort of instruction as to what to do with some other organization that might show up. So he had quite a bit of unilateral movement to make here. So while he figured he knew what they would want him to do in this instance, he didn't have any instructions that made it so that he couldn't be contrary to them.

This sounded better all the time... only assuming that he didn't make a mistake and get himself captured by these people and taken away from the _Silver Blur_. If push came to shove, there were probably things that he could do that would surprise them... but that went both ways. There were probably things other than that aura barrier (which is what Paul had settled on calling the thing that the SBAT people had used to isolate the place where the event had been taking place) that these people could pull out of their hats in a pinch that no one in the Empire had ever attempted to do. Their way of using magic was completely different.

Oh, there was another interesting idea, though also fairly dangerous of these people were worse than the Empire. To trade magical spells and ideas with them. Maybe taking a look at each others' PMDs... though that was basically out of the question unless they really proved trustworthy to him... and vice versa. That thought was maddening for a while, as the possibility of suddenly having several tricks up his sleeve that the Empire knew nothing about was incredibly intoxicating. The idea of being able to use it to liberate worlds...

For a moment, Jon let himself dive into a daydream where this BATS group was benevolent... where life under their purview would be happy... even to the point that he would think about serving in the corps that did whatever the women that he had seen did. That he would help them defeat the people who were taking advantage of countless worlds. Help them liberate people from the cruel hand of the Empire, and expose them for what they really were. To make it so that everyone called them the Evil Empire as they deserved aloud, without pushing it back into their heads and calling them whatever democratic-sounding name that they had come up with lately. And then providing weapons wouldn't be the only thing that he could do. Then he might be able to truly win a battle... to truly do for his home world what he couldn't on his own.

Though, of course, this was all operating on one very large assumption.

Jarring him out of his thoughts, the auto-detect had noticed a magical signature that was large in nature... but this time small in size. Naomi immediately entered the room, her keen hearing noticing the alarm (and she was also apparently not busy doing something else at the time). She was followed in by Ifil. "What is it? Is the guy already trying again?"

"If he is, he's deviating from the pattern," Jon said.

"That would make sense, given the current climate for him," Ifil pointed out. "It's not like he wants to be almost caught again."

Jon nodded absently, trying to get a visual of the location. Then he noticed just how small the area was that had the magical signature, and hit a few keystrokes to back up and zoom out so that he could see the whole area. The perfect shot was handed to him. He knew precisely what it was, given that Paul had shown him pictures of the one he had been inside. "It's an aura barrier," Jon said slowly. "And it's in the middle of nowhere..."

Naomi pointed to one area just outside of the barrier, where she had apparently spotted something. After she pointed it out, Jon noticed that there was something there as well. When he zoomed in the location, while the aura barrier was blocking some of the view, it was obvious that the blonde was waiting there with her partner. Both of them were in their barrier clothing, but neither of them had their PMDs visibly armed.

"I think it's a trap," Ifil told him.

"It certainly has that stink to it," Jon said. "But..."

"Don't tell me that you're thinking it's not," Ifil said.

"There are a lot of things we don't know about them, but there are also a lot of things they don't know about us, which is very different than the way the Alliance is," Jon said, tapping a finger on the console. "And I can't help but thinking: if there was a way to make us the most comfortable, what would it be?"

"Get our attention and wait for us in a place where we could escape quickly if we thought we should," Ifil recited by rote. "But someone who was trying to trick us would know that too. Heck, they may even be trying to bait the original target here."

That was an interesting thought, but Jon shook his head. "I don't think so. I think this is meant for us."

Ifil shrugged. "Regardless, this stinks."

"I know... but I think it's in our best interest to play along a bit, but with some precautions."

"What kinds of precautions would prevent them from putting up another aura barrier when we arrive? What kinds of precautions would keep us safe against things that we don't even know that they could do?"

"These kinds of things require a bit of trust," Jon said. "There's a bit that they're giving us already. What if we have a sniper?"

"We do," Ifil reminded him, nonplussed.

"...and we placed him at his furthest range, teleporting in even further away. What would stop him from killing them with a well-placed shot?" Jon asked. "There's only so far that they can go in the way of trust, though, so they're wearing barrier clothing. That doesn't mean I still can't kill them from over a mile away in the trees..." He zoomed out quickly and pointed out a copse of trees that were about a mile and a third away from the location where the pair was waiting outside the aura barrier. "I could do it too. They don't know that, but if they didn't think of that when they decided to do that, then they aren't very good trap setters... I think a deliberate trap would be easier than this. Buildings to stand on, some more places where we could sneak up on them, and they would have planned for that and it wouldn't matter. This... this I think is legitimate."

"Okay, fine, let's say I believe you," Ifil told him. "What precautions would we be taking?"

"We would send only Naomi and I, as we are the two that they know, and keep you and Wendy in reserve just in case we need a little more firepower that they don't know about. We would teleport in quite a ways away and fly in, so that they couldn't track us back to the ship from the incoming teleport. Things like that."

Ifil looked dubious. "Maybe..."

Jon pointed at him. "You would be on standby. If another aura barrier went up, then you could come in and help us out. You and Wendy would work out some strategy, given the terrain you see here." Jon gestured at the screen which showed quite a bit of the territory that a possible fight would take place in. "With the four of us, even given a much larger strength in the two of them, we should be able to manage to escape."

Ifil grunted. "I'm still not totally sold that this isn't a trap, but you're right. This isn't designed so that we can get in and get at them easier, it's designed that we can escape them easier."

"Call everyone into the Com Room but Riley," Jon told him. "I want you all to watch and listen into the conversation if you can. I think this might be something good actually happening on this mission."

"Hearing you say that always makes me nervous," Wendy said as she walked in.

"Brief them all on the current situation," Jon continued to Ifil as if he hadn't been interrupted. "And make sure that everyone's ready in case they are able to track an escaping teleport."

"Teleport to another place first, then the ship," Naomi said. "Harder to track."

"Perfect," Jon agreed. "We're going in because it will take some time to fly there if we're teleporting significantly enough away. Naomi, should we do that chain teleporting idea on the way in as well?"

"Yes," Naomi said.

Jon nodded. "Send us to somewhere at least 100 miles away. Is there a good location for that, Naomi?"

"Yes," Naomi said again, this time leaning over to the console and entering in a set of coordinates. It was a place in the middle of a copse of trees some 140 miles from the target location.

"Excellent," Jon said. "And you prepare the manual teleport. I'll make sure that Mil can support your power in it so that you don't spend that much."

"Thank you."

"Wish us luck," Jon told Wendy and Ifil. They obliged as the teleportation pad sent them off to their destination.


	12. Diplomacy

**Chapter 12: Diplomacy**

Fate spotted the incoming pair shortly after Shari warned her that they were coming. "I see them, Shari."

Shari smiled through the video connection. "Good. I guess that means I'll leave you here. Good luck."

"Bardiche close the connection, but start a recording for later perusal."

"**Yes, sir.**" It was comforting to have him give his normal acknowledgment of her commands. She was nervous, though she was trying not to show it, both for Teana's sake and the... guests. It would not do to have the first diplomatic meeting of these two powers, if that's indeed what this was, to go badly because one of the parties had a case of nerves!

Fate stole a glance at her partner. Teana seemed to be doing fine. She was still and seemingly in a comfortable position, now that she wasn't holding her hands so that it was easy to see that she was unarmed.

"Remember, don't set up Cross Mirage unless we're attacked," Fate reminded Teana unnecessarily.

Teana reacted with a nod.

Fate had her eyes locked on the two incoming figures, though they were close enough that it really looked like they were indeed one figure heading toward the pair of Enforcers. It didn't take all that long for them to get close enough in order for Fate to tell them apart. Then suddenly they were landing a respectable distance in front of them. Fate dispelled the Barrier with a wave of her hand. "No tricks," she said aloud. "We only want to talk."

"Alright," the male of the pair said. "Then talk away."

"I am Enforcer Fate Testarossa Harlaown," Fate said by way of introduction. "My partner is Enforcer-Aide Teana Lanster. We are members of the Enforcer Corps, which functions as the main cadre of agents that makes sure that no one commits crimes against others with magic, particularly on Unadministered worlds... worlds where magic has not yet been discovered to the point that the world has the sufficient ability to take care of magical criminals themselves. We also act as special police forces within Administered worlds.

"We are here on this particular Unadministered world because of a magical anomaly that has been occurring here. The sensors on one of the Administered worlds picked up the signal; because the signal was so large, we could not afford to ignore it. Thus, we were dispatched to figure out what it was, and perhaps take action against the perpetrator if they were doing something against the people who live on this world.

"What is your purpose on this world?"

The man seemed to be the one that would be doing all the talking for the pair. "We were dispatched here for much the same reasons, though we are not official agents of the Alliance. We are mercenaries for hire that got hired in this case because we have the fastest ship they know of. We have the authority to act in this case mostly because they don't have the resources to spare to send on a mission that could take more than a month out here. So they offered it to us.

"I don't think they were expecting to meet one of you Enforcers, as they seemed to be under the impression that we could get in, stop whoever needed to be stopped, and then get out."

Fate nodded, though she was slightly disappointed that he wasn't an official envoy of the other organization. Though, it was plausible to think that she wasn't either, and beggars couldn't be choosers. "May I ask your name, sir?"

His eyebrows rose. "Oh, terribly sorry. I'm Jon Harlian, and this is Naomi." He indicated the young woman standing on his right. There was a momentary pause as Fate waited for more, but that was apparently all the information they were going to give her about themselves.

"What are your thoughts on the anomaly at the present time?" she asked.

There was a short pause. He seemed to be deciding what information to share. Fate was about to assure him that they would do precisely as they would and that it would be better for them to work together, but he started talking first. "We are still unsure as to precisely what it does, but it seems to have some sort of effect on the non-magical people that are in the radius of the signal. While we have some... theories as to what is happening to them, we're not sure as to all of the effects yet." He glanced at his partner momentarily. "We also think it would possibly affect us, but a shield seems to mitigate the effects. Whatever it was you created in the area also seemed to nullify the effects."

Fate nodded. "You mean the barrier that I cast in order to call your attention to this place?"

Jon nodded back.

"Ah. We call it a 'Barrier', and it shifts the dimension of the world enough that those without any magical aptitude are left behind, but the structures and other static objects in addition to those with magical ability are left inside. It is very useful for using magic or preventing magic from being used on those who live on this world."

Jon nodded. "That's about all we know. Is there anything you can add to our knowledge?"

Fate smiled. "Yes. We have knowledge of one of the perpetrator's abilities: he was able to make Teana forget about him as she was chasing him."

This revelation seemed to surprise the man. "Wow. That..." he exchanged a glance with his partner, though Fate couldn't read anything from her face. "...that's interesting news."

"Does that confirm or deny any of your theories about what the magical anomaly is doing to the people that it's affecting?" Fate asked.

"It... changes things, certainly," he said, "but unfortunately the effects have been variable by person and event. Each time different kinds of people are affected differently, and we really haven't been able to find a pattern in the effects in order to determine the desired effect. Do you think that what he did to your partner was precisely what he meant to do to her?"

Fate nodded.

"Then I think he's trying to make a spell of some kind that has a sort of mass effect. I'm not entirely sure what the effects he's going for are."

"Do you think that the effects are harmful to those that are in the area of the magical... of the spell?" Fate asked.

"Depends on the definition of harmful," he said. "Some people seem to forget what task they were doing. Others seemed to be momentarily stuck wondering about something before they continue on their way. Others have some pretty bizarre behavior, but generally everyone has been back to normal after the event. We haven't discovered anyone with noticeable differences after any of the events we've been here for."

Fate was frowning. "That seems like it could certainly be harmful in the long-run, even if it isn't immediately obvious that it is hurting them."

Jon slowly nodded. "You're probably right."

"It seems," Fate mused, "that our best bet is to capture the perpetrator. Then question him to determine what it is he was trying to do, and why he ran away when we challenged him. His assault on Teana notwithstanding, it's possible that he's not doing anything wrong just... being fairly misguided."

"I don't have the same optimistic outlook as you do, Miss Harlaown."

Fate smiled. "I picked it up from a good friend of mine. People have reasons for what they do. People are often just struggling for some cause that you don't know about, if they're working against you."

"Alright, then," Jon said. "So I guess that makes us allies for right now."

"I would prefer," Fate said, "that we were allies for all time, no matter the situation between you and your organization or us and your organization."

Jon looked at her for a few moments. "I'm sorry, Miss Harlaown. I don't trust you quite yet. No offense... I don't give trust easily. It keeps me alive."

Fate nodded slowly. "Then I hope to earn it."

Jon nodded back to her politely. "If you wish to contact us again, you can use this frequency," he said, calling up a screen that had a set of numbers on it.

"Bardiche, send the information to Shari, and print out a frequency that she watches for them to use if they need us."

"**Yes, sir.**" Bardiche rapidly complied, bringing up a screen that had one of the frequencies that Fate and Shari liked to use if they were thinking that the normal TSAB channels were being watched in some way.

"Mil, you know what to do with that," Jon said.

"**Certainly.**" He bowed slightly as a polite farewell, and then he and his partner were flying away in the direction in which they had come.

Fate let Shari's call connect once she was sure that the guests were out of earshot. "I think I can figure out their way of writing frequencies with a little time. I'll let you know when I have the ability to send them messages."

"Thank you, Shari. Keep a look out for the next anomaly."

"Sure!"

After the connection had been cut off, and Bardiche was preparing to teleport Teana and Fate back to the ship, Teana asked, "Do you think they're trustworthy?"

"I think... I think there's a lot more to them and their organization than meets the eye... but I think Jon and Naomi are trustworthy gateways into their culture."

Teana looked thoughtful.

* * *

Paul had one place that he liked to go when he was upset, or had something on his mind: he went to the engine room. This was why he ended up in the engine room a lot, and that he could be found most often there. Not only was he there when there was something that absolutely required his attention right then no questions asked, there was also the fact of his tendency to be in there even when he didn't really have to be. He tuned up portions of the engine and checked on the portions that probably wouldn't need his attention for weeks or even months. It was because of this that the _Silver Blur_ ran smoothly so often, since the Captain generally barely got enough money to keep the ship squeaking by.

Of course, that's not why Paul was there. Paul was there because unlike when he was an engineer working on an Alliance paycheck, he had a lot of leeway as to what he would do with the engine. The Captain only cared that it continued to work well enough that they could take jobs. Because of this freedom, Paul had been able to create a few… modifications to the engine. To the point that it was basically a completely new engine that he had built from the ground up. And that upshot of all of his work was that he now worked on the fastest ship in Alliance Space. It was quite the gratifying thought.

And all this only helped his ability to keep his freedom of how he wanted to tune the engine. No Alliance specs, no deadlines, other than when the engine would go out, and no supervisor breathing down his neck. Just the Captain, a man that Paul had greatly respected for quite a long time at this point. And he didn't much like to be breathing down Paul's neck; he preferred to be elsewhere… he was a doer rather than a commander, really. And he didn't treat those who worked for him like shit. That was always a plus.

The screen that he often used to communicate with the bridge or Com Room lit up suddenly, and Riley's smiling face was peering out at him. He wiped his brow as he smiled back. "What's up, cutie?"

She giggled. "I've been looking around at the slight magical emanations around us in Dimensional Space, and I came across some readings I think you should look at. I don't really recognize any of them as ship's engines, but maybe they're just an engine type that I'm not familiar with. I figured if anyone on the ship knew..."

Paul nodded. "Send 'em down; I'll take a look."

The window that held Riley's smiling face was sent into a corner of the screen, while magical data was pulled up beneath and beside it. There were three readings that he was having her look at, each one taking up a third of the screen as a graph with some data written in small print at the bottom of the segment. Paul looked at the set of three and was pretty sure pretty quickly as to what the middle one was.

"That's a teleportation signal," he said pointing to the one in the middle and having Quicksilver highlight it on Riley's version of the screen. "Or at least, some sort of transportation of something smaller than this room."

Riley nodded. "I guess that makes sense for us to be picking up, since we know that the TSAB is somewhere around here and they probably need a way to get to and from the world just like we do."

Paul agreed with a quiet noise. "That just leaves the first and the third one." The first one was giving him trouble because it just looked far too familiar and yet oh-so-foreign so he couldn't really put his finger on why it bothered him. He studied the third one instead, thinking that he should come back to the first one when he made some sort of calculation on that one.

The third one... it had a bunch of the signs of being the power from a ship, but there were a few problems with it. Problem one: it was too weak. No power that weak was good enough in order to move anything larger than a dust mite through Dimensional Space... at least not at any appreciable speed. Problem two: it was clearly running off a human's magical core, rather than through a ship's artificial one... or, alternatively, the ship's core that it was running through hadn't been tuned properly. The emanations were too irregular, the graph too jagged to be one of the streamlined ships that governments tended to have. Problem three: it was _elemental in nature_. This pointed to it being from a human's core rather than a ship's, as it was far easier to create a core without any elemental aspects that sometimes are attached to human's cores.

Then he realized something and quickly glanced up at the first signal. It made too much sense. The emanations were somewhat similar, but the first one was far stronger than the third, and if he looked at it right, it looked like it could be an engine in idle. At least, as long as it were an engine that he hadn't ever seen before, and that would make sense for the newcomer organization. It was increasingly clear the more he thought about it... "I think the first one is the TSAB ship," Paul said, having Quicksilver highlight it. "Which leaves the... third..."

Riley looked concerned. "Paul? Is something wrong?"

"I think it's another ship. I think there's something else that's on its way either here, or by here."

Riley gasped. "Do you think that there's a third organization like the Alliance and the TSAB?"

Paul shook his head. "I don't know; I do know that I need to go tell the Captain that we are likely to have even more company in a moment."

Paul immediately left the engine room, not even waiting for the communication to be closed by the _Silver Blur_'s pilot. He went halfway up the main hallway of the ship, even seeing Riley come down out of the bridge a moment before he turned and burst into the kitchen area, where Jon was making himself something. "Captain... I have news."

"That doesn't sound like good news," the Captain observed.

Paul shook his head. "No, it's not. I think it's possible that there's another ship on its way to this world."

Jon, who was now buttering the roll that he was about to eat, slowed down as he took this information in, his knife eventually coming to a stop without spreading the butter evenly across the moist bun. It was also at this moment that Paul realized that he was hungry.

"Do you know anything about such a ship?" the Captain asked after a long pause.

"No... I have a few things that I think might be true, but the only thing that I can tell you for sure is that they're using an engine that I've never seen before. Maybe it's new enough that they're having trouble getting the right tuning specs, or something's seriously wrong with the ship. There are other possibilities, but I won't be able to confirm or eliminate very many of them until they get much closer, assuming that they are headed this way."

"What else is out here?" the Captain asked. "It's outside TSAB borders, so other than their ship, there shouldn't be any other ships that might drop by that they wouldn't know about... and we know how far out of Alliance space this is... I think we need to call them and see if we can't confirm the readings with them, even if it means possibly revealing our location."

"So you do actually trust them?" Paul asked. He and the rest of the crew had gone over the conversation that their Captain had had with the Enforcer from the TSAB many times.

"Not precisely. I trust Riley to get us out if things get hairy, and I trust your engine to make it so that Riley can easily leave them in our dust," the Captain corrected right before he stuffed the whole roll in his mouth. He clapped the crumbs off of his hands quickly over the sink before heading toward the door that Paul was blocking. The engineer stepped back into the hallway, where Jon walked directly past him and into the Com Room. He had apparently swallowed by then, as once he got into the Com Room, he continued. "Get me the readings and get in here so that I can have you talk to their engineer to confirm this." Then he stopped for a moment, and called louder, "Riley, stay at the helm for right now, please."

"Okay, Captain!" came the chipper reply.

Paul called after the pilot's retreating back, "send the readings you had down to the Com Room; I'll label them once they get there."

"Okay, Paul!" So chipper.

Paul joined Jon in the Com Room, where Naomi already was. She apparently had already been filled in on the situation, as she had already pulled up the outgoing video conferencing capability of the station, and was merely waiting for Jon's go-ahead. They only had to wait a few more seconds for the information that Paul had been working with to arrive from the bridge. (This was accompanied by a "_You're welcome._" on the com unit that connected to the bridge, but she didn't wait for a reply, and let the connection go an instant later). Paul quickly attached labels to the data so that he could refer to them easily, and nodded to Jon when he was done. Naomi didn't wait for a signal from Jon as well, she immediately pulled down the data that they had received from Enforcer Harlaown.

"This is as good a time to test this as any," Jon said under his breath, but since it was loud enough for Paul to hear clearly, Paul was pretty sure that it was loud enough for Naomi to hear clearly as well. Neither of them reacted, though.

It turned out that whatever adjustments that Naomi had made in addition to the one adjustment that Paul had made was enough for their intended recipient to receive the message. After only about ten seconds of waiting, the blonde Enforcer had answered the call. "Not precisely the frequency that I was looking for, but close enough for me to know what was going on and to latch on to your signal. At least, for _Bardiche_ to alert me so, anyway. What can I do for you, Mr. Harlian?"

"We have been receiving a few signals and have been drawing a few... unwelcome conclusions from them, and we wanted to check with you to make sure there wasn't some TSAB activity that was causing them."

"Well," she began, looking up in thought. "We haven't cast a barrier, or any other magic, on the planet since we last spoke..."

Jon shook his head, which brung the blonde to a halt. "We mean signals from objects in Dimensional Space, not down on the world."

She raised her eyebrows. "The only things I can think of are our teleportations and our ship itself, which is probably showing up as a single entity."

Jon pulled up the data and pushed it through the connection, causing the picture of the blonde woman to shrink into the corner like Riley's had earlier. "We're getting three signals. Paul, could you walk through them?"

"Wait a moment," the Enforcer said, walking quickly for a moment, then out of frame for a few seconds, where something was happening in the background that the three on the _Silver Blur_ could hear only that something was being said. Then she was back in frame with another person in tow, this one brown-haired and spectacled. "Alright. This is my supporting Engineer and longtime partner Shario Fineio. Now could you go over it with my Engineer?"

"Mine to yours," Jon said. "Paul?"

Paul took the time to say, "I'm Paul Shinriel, and the Engineer for these two, Ms. Fineio..."

The brunette cut in. "Call me Shari, please."

Paul smiled. "Then call me Paul, Shari. Anyway, the data that you can see are the three distinct signals that we are seeing. The top one seems to be an idling engine, plus some other smaller uses of magic close by, which is rather normal for any engine, as people use magic on ships all the time..." he paused slightly, but Shari was nodding her understanding so he continued. "The second one is also pretty clear, in my opinion, to be teleportation of some kind, probably from your ship to the planet..." he paused again, as now Shari had pulled up her own calculations and was apparently making her own calculations given the data. Maybe translating it, assuming that Paul was right about his suppositions. Paul was reminded suddenly that since there was a lot different about the ways that this TSAB did things from the Alliance, it was possible that the information that was on the screen wasn't precisely readable even to another engineer. "Do you need a little time to translate the data into a form you normally use it?"

"Yes, please," Shari said, though her voice seemed very... pleased. "It's very exciting to see another way to organize the data from these signals. I hope we can exchange more notes like this later... Okay, I think I have a way to translate it that will work well enough for now... but I hope to talk to you more about it later so that we can translate such signals for each other far more quickly..."

"Right," Paul said. "It's the third signal that is the bothersome one. The way I'm reading it..." he was going slowly so that Shari could translate it while he talked and still listen. "I think that it's another ship coming that's far enough away for the signal from their engines to be fairly weak, but close enough that this is the only place that they are likely to be headed, unless they are very lost."

There were a few more moments when Shari was obviously completing her calculations before her eyes got very big. "Wow... that's... that would be a very interesting engine."

"And yet that's the only conclusion I can draw from it," Paul said. "Despite all the problems that seem to be in such an engine, and as far as it must be away, the only thing I can think of is a very bad engine that's on its way here."

"I think... I think you have something here," Shari said, "but I'll take more of a look at it and see if I can't find this signal among what we're getting over here. I'll let you know on this frequency if I can find something else out, okay, Paul?"

"Sure."

Enforcer Harlaown spoke again. "Mr. Harlian, do you think that another ship should be coming from the MCAW?"

Jon thought for a moment, but there was only one answer to give. "No. It is unlikely that they would be sending an official ship if they were going to be hiring us in the first place. Anyone from the TSAB?"

She shook her head. "No, we appealed from some additional help but got denied it. I don't think there's any more coming from the TSAB."

"Alright, then, we wanted to know if you could explain the appearance of another ship, but it seems that you can't either. We'll contact you if there is anything else."

"Thank you, Mr. Harlian. I'm glad you called us."

Jon nodded to her before he closed the connection. Then he turned to Paul. "Find out everything you can about that signal. I don't want any more surprises to come upon us when we're on the world itself. Just the one is plenty for my heart, I think."

Paul nodded. "I don't want to be surprised either... particularly if it's a ship from our side."

"If it's a ship from 'our' side," Jon said, "then I think we figured out the reason why they think we aren't going to survive this mission."


	13. The Other Shoe Drops

**Chapter 13: The Other Shoe Drops**

Teana and Fate stood around a street corner from where the target was. He had started another event, and it had only taken a week for him to get up the bravery to do it again, though this time he had apparently broken the pattern of _where_ the event occurred. Fate was holding the shield against the event, and Teana could cast a Barrier in less than a breath.

"Fifteen seconds," Fate said quietly. Because of the inability to use communications quietly in the magical environment that the events created, the only way that they could assure that everyone was in position in time was to agree on timing and hope. They had no way to make sure that Harlian and his crew were in position. And given what had happened the last time, it was best if they took all advantages that they could before going in. Teana tightened her grip on her Device.

"Five," Fate said. Both of them took off the overcloak that would allow them to walk around in their barrier jackets though the act didn't seem to attract the attention of anyone walking by the alley in which they had sequestered themselves. "Four. Three. Two." Both Devices were up and ready. "One. Mark."

Teana let the Barrier go and jumped out of the hiding place and bore down on the target, who was standing on another street corner, watching all of his victims try to go about their business. The Barrier locked into place momentarily, setting the magical beings half a dimension to one side... and leaving a lot more people in place than it should have.

Before Teana could quite process that far more people remained on the streets within the Barrier than she and Fate had been expecting, one of them pointed a Device at her and fired a shot. Teana let her speed drop enough that the shot struck in front of her, then pointed Cross Mirage at both the target and her attacker. But she didn't get to start her speech before another one of the people who should not have been there noticed her and fired another shot. Teana was forced to bring up a shield to block it, and a quick glance confirmed that the Target had run off. Hopefully Fate had him in her sights, or perhaps one of Harlian's crew. Teana had more pressing concerns at that moment.

One of those concerns fired again, though this time Teana got her bearings together well enough to give her speech. "I am Enforcer Teana Lanster of the TSAB. Cease your fire immediately." Another shot splashed off of her shield, though now they seemed to be moving to try to surround her. Teana allowed an inner grin. She knew how to derail that plan quickly, if need be. "If you cease immediately, you will be allowed a trial." She shot a magical bullet out of the air, then returned Cross Mirage to pointing at another one of the intruders.

_All right, that's enough._ She ducked into the building next to her just as she called an illusion into being on the roof above her. She had it step forward and fire two real shots (with a little help from her real Device), effectively taking the attention of the people out in the street. Quietly, she gave commands to her Device. "Connect to Bardiche."

"**Connecting... Connection refused. In melee.**"

Well, that was a bad sign. One of the soldiers was checking out the alley trying to figure out how Tea had climbed so quickly. With the drop on him, she took him out in three well-placed shots that took out a hastily-raised shield, his Barrier Jacket or equivalent, and then knocked him cold. Tea frowned at the fallen form. _That was easier than taking out one of our D ranks._ In that case...

Tea popped out from the alley, letting a shot pass through and cancel her illusion on the roof and started taking her shots. On full offensive with two firing weapons, the enemy didn't stand a chance. Teana dropped four of them before she even had to put up a shield. In the end, there were eight of them unconscious in the middle of the street.

Teana allowed herself a pleased grin. "Connect to Bardiche."

"**Connecting... Connection refused. In melee.**"

Now she was worried. If Fate took more than a few moments on any number of these soldier-types, then there was something else that went wrong, or she was chasing the Target. And a moment later, Teana spotted the Target. And whoever it was chasing the Target was certainly not Fate or Jon or that Naomi girl.

Teana aimed and charged a Shooter attack. One of the two people chasing the Target shouted as they got closer. "Enforcer! Tag him!"

"Crossfire..." She made sure that she had plenty of shots. "Shoot!"

Twelve shots spun around her toward the target, who specifically tried to block a few, while possibly relying on an Autoguard for the rest. One of the pair chasing him fired a shot into a soldier that was coming around a corner while the other kept her eyes solely on the Target as the smoke cleared and revealed that Teana hadn't taken him out, only stopped him.

The male of the unknown pair had a large hammer for a Device, while his female partner had a blood-red energy sword. Both were out and active, the hammer firing shots at any of the weak soldier-types that kept showing up. The woman dodged a shot from the Target, but easily prevented him from getting past her. But it was the guy that spoke again. "I got distractions! You two take him out, Enforcer!"

"Friends of Harlian's?" Teana asked with her sights set firmly on the Target, who was glancing this way and that.

"That's us," the woman said. "Don't you have a speech now?"

Teana couldn't help but smile, even as she turned her attention to the Target fully. "You are under arrest for using magic on innocents on an Unadministered World. If you surrender, you will be allowed a trial."

As Teana had expected, the man fired _something_ out of his Device toward her head, but she was down and away from it instantly, the shot dissipating harmlessly against one of the buildings behind her. She brought Cross Mirage up to bear once again. Her female ally's sword swung through the air and got through the Target's Autoguard, but he dodged the swipe with a lean.

"Hold!" Teana said. "Stop!"

"I have no interest in stopping. I have almost succeeded, and I do not need your meddling in my affairs." So the man could speak. Maybe she could talk him down, and not have to fight him. Or deal with his Memory attack again.

"So the affairs of the people on this world don't matter to you?"

"Of course they do," he spat. "It would not be a terribly good experiment if I didn't care somewhat about the affairs of the test subjects!"

"They're test subjects? There are reasons why test subjects should be asked before a test is performed on them!" Teana was shouting, but she couldn't help her agitation. "They're human beings! What gives you the right to decide something like this for them? What if they don't want what you're peddling? Particularly not to have to deal with any mistakes you make, since this is only an _experiment?_"

"They want it," he said coldly. "Everyone who has been in their position has wanted what I peddle... what I'm about to be able to peddle. I can give them the only thing that any of these people want right now... I can give them a wish that usually can't be granted! I can give them a _miracle_. There is no reason why they wouldn't want it!"

"What kind of miracle would everyone in a city want?" Teana asked him.

"You don't know?" he asked. "You came to this world in order to stop me, likely, but you don't even know what's going on on this world? Have you done any research from your little interdimensional ships? Are you even keeping your eyes open as you're down here?" He was shouting now. "These people have been zombies lately! The whole world's at war! Far away from here now, but only because this place has been taken over! The destroyed buildings, places abandoned, people going about their business with the most uncaring look on their face... was none of that a clue to you? Was none of that noticeable to the high-and-mighty TSAB?"

Teana was shocked enough that she nearly let Cross Mirage fall to her side. When she noticed, she stiffened the arm that was pointed at the Target.

"These people are in a living hell! Brothers, fathers, sons, nephews... people here have lost a lot in the past few months... and the people who did it to them have simply marched on. There isn't even a military presence here anymore; the people who control this area just have a small fort some ten miles north of this town. They don't care about the people's suffering. They don't care about injuries sustained in the bombings of the city... about the rebuilding that isn't really happening because people are basically zombies after a tragedy... without any help, these people may never rebuild!

"I intend to give them the help that they want the most: I will give them the ability to _forget_.

"I can make it so that all of these people forget the nightmare that they have gone through. I can make it so that these people don't have to think about those that they lost in the fires of Hell that they experienced a few weeks ago. The Hell that they have lived in since. Without that cloud weighing on their minds, they could rebuild! They could go about doing the things that they want to do again... they could actually want to do things again! They could _live!_"

"What if they don't want to forget?" The male of Harlian's crew chimed in.

"Of course they want to forget," the Target seemed to recoil from the very idea. "No one wants to remember such tragedy! I don't want to remember mine!"

"And so you assume that everyone wants the same thing you want when faced with a similar tragedy?" He asked. His partner still warily kept the Target between her and Teana.

"They want it just as badly!" the target shouted. "Don't you see it in their eyes?"

"I see pain in their eyes," the female said, taking the Target's attention. "I see a pain that never really goes away. But that doesn't mean that they want to forget those who are gone. Those who have died in service, those who died during attacks on this town... can't you see that they've started the rebuilding? Can't you see that they've started to put the pieces of their lives back together? There are things that these people want to be doing, and they can still do them. There is a time after a tragedy that people are sent into a state that it seems that they will never get out of... but eventually they do. It's what humans do, after all. You've done it too. You're trying to help people now, instead of wallowing in yourself and doing nothing for anyone including yourself. You're an example of how we get over such things."

"I am not over it!" the target shouted, though he was definitely visibly shaken by this line of thought. "I want to forget! Everyone wants to forget!"

"If we didn't remember such things," Teana said, her confidence growing, "then we would never be able to grow and learn from them. All tragedy, from the great like war, to the small like a mistake that hurts a friend even a little bit, they're all things that teach us something about us, about those who we love, about the world and worlds around us. They're things that we would never learn about ourselves if we simply forgot the people and events of the time."

"Shut up!" the target shouted. "Shut up! Shut up!" He fired another shot at Teana, who had to roll to dodge it, and then at the woman, who stepped to one side.

"Wendy," the male partner said with a hard tone. The female partner glanced toward him, then toward where he was looking. Her eyes widened.

This was enough of an opening for the Target to attempt to take. He fired again.

"Down!" Teana shouted, firing herself. Wendy seemed to dodge all of the shot, but she didn't get up immediately. Teana prepared a Bombardment attack in an attempt to knock out the Target, but she was distracted by Wendy's own shout.

"Down!"

Teana hit the ground, just in time to dodge a silvery-white blade pass through the air above her. She sprung back from the attacker to get a good look at him. Wendy and her partner were taking positions such that with Teana they had the newcomer surrounded. The newcomer was in a Barrier Jacket that took the form of a navy trenchcoat and carried a curved magical blade emitting from a small Device.

"What's going on here?" Teana asked of the three of them, wary.

"Removing extraneous variables," the newcomer said. The other male rolled his eyes.

"Part of our past has caught up with us," Wendy said quietly, but with enough force to still reach Teana. "You don't have to support us in this. Go after _him_." Wendy and her partner were circling the newcomer in a predatory manner. "Ifil, let's do this."

Teana took a step toward where the Target had run off, but found her way barred by a shot from the newcomer's Device. "I don't think so, girl," he said with a malevolent smile. "You're not going anywhere."

Ifil cursed, while Wendy charged the enemy. "Go!" she shouted. Teana launched herself, but then had to redirect, as the enemy was fast enough to get in front of her.

"**Dagger Mode.**" Teana got her blade up and locked with the curved silver one that had lashed at her neck. Then Wendy was behind him and swinging down with her own blade, forcing him to disengage with Teana. She was able to get past him with Wendy engaged in melee... but the Target was already out of sight. She felt like cursing herself.

She had to turn and block another strike from the newcomer too quickly to think heavily on where he might have ducked out of sight. He was strong... she had to jump away. Ifil was immediately in her place, engaging in melee. "Do you guys ever actually think?" Ifil asked, cutting off with a grunt as he took a blow to a shield that dropped him to his knees. "Or do you just attack everyone willy-nilly?"

The man in the trenchcoat didn't answer, having to engage with Wendy on his other side. Teana was amazed at the speed and power of the attacks being thrown at each other. Both Wendy and Ifil were clearly Forwards - or at least they were acting like Forwards - and they could probably use a Center. Teana brought Cross Mirage to bear.

Apparently frustrated with his progress against his two opponents, the enemy tried something new. "**Negative Zone.**" This was a danger to Ifil and Wendy, as Ifil instantly disengaged from their opponent and took up several paces away from him. Teana could easily see why; the area immediately around the man and Wendy had reversed colors. The trenchcoat looked a light tan, and the face navy in the strange area created. Teana fired two shots into the zone, but both of them came to a stop shortly after they flipped from orange to blue. Wendy and the man exchanged an extremely quick series of hard blows between their magical blades.

Ifil came back into the fray shortly with his own attack. "**Power Sink.**" The purple glow that his hammer took on as it swung through the discolored area didn't change, and when he struck the back of the man's Jacket, the discoloration abruptly faded, and the man charged at Teana's position.

Ifil managed to get himself between the two of them in time to block the attempted strike with his giant hammer Device. Wendy was getting up from being knocked to the street by the man's launch. Teana darted around to the side, firing when she felt she had a decent shot at the enemy. Since he was trying to get around Ifil, Ifil apparently decided that he needed a little more of the man's attention.

"**Home Run.**"

Speedily the large hammerhead came around Ifil's body and very nearly slammed into the off-side of the man's trenchcoat Jacket. His hand came up to create a shield in time, but it only bought him time. He spun out of the way as the Device passed through the space he had just occupied. Wendy came around his other side, trying to take advantage of where the man's Device's haft was, but it grew a second blade to block Wendy's assault. This seemed to help him once the other two had surrounded him once again, leaving Teana to circle warily. Was she even being useful?

Teana spotted a newcomer out of the corner of her eye. It was another one of the soldiers from earlier with the same lance-like Device. He was pointing it at the melee. Teana pulled around Cross Mirage and dropped him with two well-placed shots. Then the one behind him. When she looked back at the melee she was protecting, the three combatants sprang apart.

"**Glide Hook.**"

The second blade had disappeared back into the haft, but the first blade was growing ever larger before the man slashed horizontally, sending the blade such that all three of his opponents had to dodge.

"**Flight.**" Ifil sprang into the air to get out of the way.

"**Quick.**" Wendy shot to the side, rolling between buildings.

Teana dropped to a crouch, pulling a _Protection_ in front of her just in case, but dropped it as the blade flew a good decimeter above her head. "**Dagger Mode.**" The man charged her again, though this time neither of the others were close enough to do anything about it. Teana met the strike again, and had to move quickly to keep his blade away from her Barrier Jacket. Twice the Autoguard protected her when she was just a hint too late. She noticed that his attacks lost quite a bit of speed when she could see Wendy darting on his other side. Taking confidence from this, Teana pointed her off-hand's Cross Mirage barrel into his face and fired. He was knocked backward into Wendy, who connected with a slash along his arm. He then managed a slice up Wendy's thigh, sending her to ground, and turned to gut Teana.

Teana darted to her left, which provided Ifil an easy way to take her place against the enemy. Teana immediately went to Wendy's side, even though she was attempting to stand. _How much longer can we last against him?_


End file.
